A Review of Nuclear Sources of Non-Fossil Chemical Fuels

Abstract

Abstract Energy derived from nuclear sources can be utilized either in the form of high-energy radiation, thermal energy or electrical energy. Each of these energy forms can be employed to produce non-fossil chemical fuels by transformation of available non-fossil substances. As a general definition, available non-fossil fuel substances are all resources other than coal, petroleum, or natural gas. Thus the substances that can serve as raw materials for nuclear-energy conversion to non-fossil chemical fuels are basically the substances found in water, air, and minerals. High-energy radiation from nuclear fission can be utilized either directly as fission-fragment energy in a chemonuclear reactor, or indirectly as neutron, gamma, and beta energy from isotopic sources. Fission-fragment energy is actually the only radiation-energy source that can be generated in sufficient quantity and at low enough cost to be considered for production of fuels. The two basic fuels that can be generated are hydrogen from water and carbon monoxide from carbon dioxide. The hydrogen and carbon monoxide can be used as fuels or can be subsequently converted to high-BTU gas or other liquid hydrocarbons. The main difficulties with fission-fragment chemonuclear systems are obtaining sufficiently high yields of fuel gases and demonstrating that a fuel essentially free of radioactive fission fragments can be produced. Thermal energy from nuclear fission in the form of steam or a high-temperature gas stream such as helium can, conceivably, be used to crack water to hydrogen and carbon dioxide to carbon monoxide. Carbon dioxide can be derived from thermal decomposition