NUCLEAR WATER RAMJET BASED

ON PLUTONIUM POWERED FAST

BREEDER REACTOR WITH TWO
LOOPED LIQUID METAL COOLING
MARINE ENGINEERING AND RESEARCH INSTITUTE- Kolkata, Now INDIAN
MARITIME UNIVERISTY

Mr. SAPTARSHI
BASU INMARCO
Cdt. TANMOY DEY 2018
Global shipping today supports over 90%
of the world trade and the freight rates
earned is equal to about 5% of the
world trade. The shipping cargo
transportation is over 31 trillion tone-
miles and net global fl eet strength is
over 700 million gross tones. Without the
shipping and transport and logistic the
international trade as we know will cease
to exist. The above statistics mean
that shipping is one of the most
WATER
RAMJET
INSTEAD
OF A
PROPELLER
 Water Ramjet instead of propeller

Sea
water

Steam
COMPARISON OF A CONVENTIONAL DE PROPULSION SYSTEM AND WATER RAMJET SYSTEM.
The mixing process starts as a stratifi ed
nonequilibrium state, at the nozzle exit, but
due to interface momentum and energy
transfer the steam undergoes a condensation
process which ultimately results in a localised
compressive shock within the fl ow. The
condensation shock results in large pressure
diff erences which subsequently lead to
signifi cant fl uid motion.

The result of this mixing is a fairly high

velocity and temperature fl uid mixture
DIRECT CONTACT STEAM JET
INJECTION
 Reason for using a chocked CD ramjet
• Maximum cycle efficiency is 20 ~ 33 %
• Cavitation leads to loss in efficiency and damage to material in the long run.
• The propeller can be run by floating debris, ropes or projectiles etc.
• The propeller is high inefficient in constrained flow.
• Due to suction field created it creates an augmentation of resistance due to
interaction effects.
• Steam jet cannot be chocked, jammed, broken and or stopped.
• Multiple nozzles which can be azimuthal, and reverse nozzles can cause
thrust reversal and thrust vectoring.
Positioning
the
thrusters/
ejector
Nozzles
 Full Steaming at
1961 24 Knots
First
Nuclear
powered
merchant
ship, built
at New
York ship
building,
13,599 20,300 funded by
GRT BHP United
States
 And many
more…
 NS Arktika
Sevmorput
Japanese
Mutsu

German-built Otto -
Some 140 ships are powered by more
than 180 small nuclear reactors and
more than 12,000 reactor years of
m a r i n e o p e r a ti o n h a s b e e n
accumulated. Most are submarines,
but they range from icebreakers to
a i r c r a ft c a r r i e r s .
The Russian Navy has logged over
6 0 0 0 n a u ti c a l r e a c t o r- y e a r s . I t
appears to have eight strategic
submarines (SSBN/SSGN) in
o p e r a ti o n a n d 1 3 n u c l e a r- p o w e r e d
a tt a c k s u b m a r i n e s ( S S N ) .
Russia built 248 nuclear submarines
a n d fi v e n a v a l s u r f a c e v e s s e l s ( p l u s 9
i c e bre a ke rs ) p owe re d by 4 6 8
reactors between 1950 and 2003, and
w a s t h e n o p e r a ti n g a b o u t 6 0 n u c l e a r
naval vessels.
The USA had built 219
nuclear-powered vessels to
m i d 2 0 1 0 , a n d t h e n h a d fi v e
submarines and an aircraft
carrier under construction.
All US aircraft carriers and
submarines are nuclear-
powered.
What is a Fast
Breeder
Reactor ?
REACTOR
DESIGN
FUEL ROD AND ASSEMBLY
 ABOUT THE LOOPS
SODIUM LOOP
1. Primary High temperature liquid sodium loop.
2. Secondary Lower Temperature liquid Sodium Loop.

LEAD-BISMUTH (Pb-Bi) LOOP

An Eutectic Solution of Lead-Bismuth is used for the following two purposes :
1. Cool the inner pool of liquid Sodium.
2. Final Layer of radioactive shielding, because of its high molecular density.

WATER LOOP
 MATERIAL AND THE REACTOR STRUCTURE
• The essential requirements for materials are now high melting point, relation of satisfactory
physical and mechanical property at high temperatures, and good corrosion resistance
especially to molten sodium.
• Metals and alloys of particular interest are stainless steels, niobium, molybdenum, tantalum
and tungsten. The latter two leaving very high melting point substances, for e.g. tantalum is
3400⁰C, their thermal neutron cross section is very high and they are brittle, and somewhat
difficult to fabricate.
• Tantalum on the other hand, can be fabricated without undue difficulty and resists the action
sodium up to 1200⁰C, it can also contain molten plutonium-iron fuel. Austenitic stainless steel
of variety 304, 304.c, 309S Nb, 31B, 316L, 347 are found suitable for reactor applications.
• Nickel used for manufacture of these stainless shall less than 0.0012% of Cobalt as contaminant
to prevent the formation of radioactive Co-60. They should be able to resist intergranular
attack, of sensitized material, stress corrosion cracking, and local attack by Na-24.
 Salient points of reactor design
.

• Nuclear shield has a boron coated Zirconium, followed by quartz glass

and thick stain-less steel containment. Graphite for Biological
shielding and lead pool covering at last for absorption.
• The proposed reactor in this paper is plutonium based in the first
stage and models of the series and then thorium based in the second
stage liquid metal cooled fast breeder reactor or LMFBR.
• For the same power output the fuel required would be less and hence
the fast breeder reactors are much smaller in size than thermonuclear
reactor since the size of the reactors is smaller for efficient that
transfer metal coolant such as sodium is used.
 WATER INJECTION
PUMP An axial flow water jet pump
has been designed for model
testing. The design is based on
the requirements of a notional
high-speed ship. The predicted
full-scale pump efficiency is
92%; the predicted model
scale efficiency is 90%. The
pump was sized to power a
notional high-speed ship. The
detail design was performed
using a combination of inviscid
and viscous computational
analysis methods. This pump
feeds the honey comb heat
exchanger. Requirement was
for a 12-inch (304.8 mm)
pump operating at 2000 rpm
HONEY COMB TYPE HEAT EXCHANGER
This is a resiliently mounted heat exchanger which is the
heart of the propulsion project.

The ultrasonic vibration in the heat exchanger causes self-

cleaning due to imposed cavitation action due to high
frequency vibration and water near the boundary layer. It
will automatically remove the excessive salt deposition
from the vaporizing sea water (32000 ppm).

It’s a Single pass HX, with high flow rate, thus making in
non-chockable. There is an Intimate contact between the
sea water and the lead bismuth heated loop. Honey comb
structure results in the maximum intimate contact
between the heat exchanging medium that is the lead
bismuth from the secondary loop and the seawater
injected into the heat exchanger by the multistage axial
flow sea water pump of high capacity.
 REACTOR DESIGN SAFETY
FEATURES
3. Any hazard due to either mishandling by an operator or malfunction of control
system shall be kept to a minimum instruments monitor.
4. The condition of the reactor and its associated plant if these indicate a potentially
dangerous situations or if all control electrical supplies, fail, the rod-drive motors
de-energies and the reactor shuts down automatically.
5. The diffusion of radioactively shall be prevented by installing the reactor vessel
and accessory instrumentation in a steel container, which also protests the
reactor plants against free flooding.
6. At the bottom of container two sets of pressure balancing valve are provided to
present the rupture of the container by external pressure in the event of sinking.
The valves open at pressure difference of 2 kg/cm2 so sea water can flow into the
container and will close again after the divination of pressure difference.
 REACTOR DESIGN SAFETY FEATURES

7. The steel container should always be safe against such as collision or stranding being
located in the centre of the well and protected on all sides with reinforced structure.
8. Three reactor itself, the reactor auxiliary equipment and the reactor service area
forward of the machinery space are auxiliary rooms are equipped with anti-collision
structure of uniform strength around the front and back of reactor.
9. Both sides of these rooms re-equipped with anti-collision structure, which consists of
six decks of thicker plates. In event of collision, the energy will be absorbed by this
structure, thus not damaging the container and the installations in the reactor and it’s
a built-up lattice composed of stranding, this structure will protect the inner bottom
plate against breakages and two protect the reactor container and other installation.
10. The two – compartment standard and strict stability criteria will be applied to prevent
an eventual foundering.
 REACTOR DESIGN SAFETY
FEATURES
11. Fireproof constructions, fire detecting system and fore extinguishing systems are to be
sufficiently installed throughout the ship, non-combustible materials are to be used
for furnishing.
12. Dust type installations and the principal of dispersal are adopted to ensure the
security of functioning of all equipment. For safe and smooth operation, it is
important that all the important parts in the primary circuit duplicated so that if one
of them fail other can take over the charge.
13. Emergency devices and the safety systems associated with reactor plant shall operate
satisfactorily when subjected to the following: -
Roll 600 – single amplitude
Pitch 200 – single amplitude
List 600 – Trim – 200
Vertical acceleration: 1+1.3g, other ascertain – 1.0 g.
 WHY NUCLEAR
POWER ?
1. T h e c o s t s o f n u c l e a r e n e r g y a r e r e l a t i v e l y l o w.  

2. N u c l e a r e n e r g y p r o d u c e s r e l a t i v e l y l o w l e v e l s o f
pollution.
 
3. T h e r e a r e h i g h l e v e l s o f f u e l a v a i l a b i l i t y.

4. I t i s a h i g h e n e r g y d e n s i t y r e s o u r c e .
 
5. N u c l e a r e n e r g y c a n s u p p o r t o u r g r e a t e s t p o w e r
needs.
 
6. Wa s t e r e c y c l i n g c a n r e d u c e o u r c u r r e n t c o s t s
i m m e d i a t e l y.
 Advantages
The major advantages are: -
1. Long periods between refueling operations and considerable endurance range for vessel after
each refueling. [capabilities like dry-dock to dry-dock refueling operation is easily possible].
2. Huge quantities of fuel need not be transported with resultant weight savings and space needed
for fuel, besides a reduction in manpower required for refueling operation.
3. As nuclear power in not dependent on air for combustion, it is very useful choice for sub marine
propulsion. For surface ship there is not exhaust to give the ship a neat Signature and no pollution
to atmosphere by exhaust emissions.
4. There are no changes in ship draft and trim as the fuel is consumed.
5. Nuclear plant is very simple to control, it responds Instantly to load demand changes and can
supply quantities of high-pressure steam.
6. Technology such nuclear gas turbine can cause to increase the Dynamic advantages combining
those of nuclear power plant and Gas turbine and getting steam out of the equation.
 Applicability
The ship with the following, characteristics would slow greatest economic
advantage in convention with commercial source of propulsion.
1. Long trade route,
2. Quick turnaround in ports
3. Large dead weight capacity.
4. Minimum shaft power of 20,000.
5. Both sides navigate fully-loaded.
6. Regular home or base port.
7. Cargo suitable for nuclear shielding.
PO S IT IO
N OF
TH E
R E ACTO R
O N TH E
S H IP
REACTOR
SECTION
 Conclusion
• Nuclear propulsion is reliable. Even single reactor submarines routinely operate under the Arctic
Ice cap where a loss of power can be fatal. No Western nuclear ship has been lost because of a
power failure. Nuclear propulsion is clean.
• A nuclear engine can push a sealed submarine for months at a time without affecting the
atmosphere in the ship. Nuclear engines can be very powerful for a given total propulsion plant
weight.
• Though the exact numbers are classified, it is obvious that an engine that can drive an 80,000-ton
aircraft carrier at 35 knots into the wind while launching aircraft with steam driven catapults has a
significant power capacity.
• Based on the amount of payload on nuclear carriers compared to fossil fuel driven carriers, the
nuclear engines require less space and weight than the oil-fired steam turbines that they replaced.
• Purely on capability, nuclear power is worth a look. Cost is a hurdle, however, since aircraft carriers
and large submarines are several billion-dollar machines.
 Conclusion
• Nuclear reactors offer reliable and compact sources of continuous heat that last
for years without needing new fuel.
• They are well suited for vessels which need to be at sea for long periods without
refuelling or for powerful submarine propulsion.
• However, the future designs of nuclear marine propulsion are focused on the
overall costs associated with the construction as well as maintenances of vessels.
• In an age of just-in-time inventories and rapidly changing technology and fashion,
the value of high-speed shipping is even greater than ever before. When it comes
to the importance of high endurance, detractors of nuclear shipping have
obviously not done much research.
The END