Abstract
An important advantage of the single‐cell, Thermionic Fuel Elements (TFEs) is that they can be tested in a fully assembled nuclear reactor core using electrical heating instead of fission heating. To simulate the effects of the non‐uniform fission power profile, short electrical heaters are inserted inside the emitter tubes to uniformly heat the middle section of the active emitter length. This paper investigates the accuracy of simulating the operation of fission heated, TOPAZ‐II type TFEs using uniform electrical heating. The effects of changing the heater length on the emitter temperature and emission current axial profiles, as well as the load electric power, are calculated as functions of the thermal power to the TFE. Results show that electrical heating of the middle 0.35 m section, of the 0.375 m long emitter, more accurately simulate the operation of fission heated, TOPAZ‐II type TFEs. Shorter heaters overestimate the load electric power and the emitter's temperature and emission current density.
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