Interview: Academician Anatoly Koroteyev - An Inside Look at Russia’s Nuclear Power Propulsion System

Interview: Academician Anatoly Koroteyev An Inside Look at Russia’s Nuclear Power Propulsion System Academician Anatoly S. Koroteyev is General Director of the Keldysh Research Center, one of Russia’s leading centers for space engineering. A full member of the Russian Academy of Sciences since 1994, he has been officially honored by the Russian government for his work on space propulsion and power technologies, as well as being well known for developing plans for manned expeditions to Mars. He sits on the Russian Academy of Sciences Council on Space, is a member of the International Academy of Astronautics, and served as President of the Tsiolkovsky Russian Academy of Cosmonautics in 2005-2011. Academician Koroteyev participated in the September 2012 International Specialized Symposium: “Space & Global Security of Humanity” in Yevpatoria, Ukraine (see page 28). He gave this interview to 21st Century Science and Technology on December 3, 2012 in the form of written responses to questions from staff writer Benjamin Deniston. The interview has been translated from Russian. 21st Century: The Keldysh Center is working on developing a spacecraft using a megawatt-class nuclear power propulsion system (NPPS), and a prototype is expected to be completed in 2018. What other agencies are involved in this project, and what is the role of your Center? What has the progress been in this work? Koroteyev: Under a Russian Federation Presidential Directive dated June 22, 2010, the Keldysh Research Center is the lead organization for the project to develop a spacecraft that uses a nuclear power propulsion system (NPPS). The additional participants in the project represent a high level of cooperation among Russian organizations, chiefly Roscosmos and Rosatom [the state agencies for space exploration and nuclear power, respectively], with several of their subdivisions playing a special role: the Energiya Rocket and Space Corporation, the Chemical Machinebuilding Design Bureau, the N.A. Dollezhal Scientific Research and Design Institute, the Russian Scientific Center – Kurchatov Institute [Russia’s premiere nuclear research lab], and others. To date, a great deal of theoretical, experimental, and design work has been done, resulting in a draft design for a space transport using an NPPS. This work has enabled us to determine a prospective design for the spacecraft and its main features, and establish their feasibility. Many people firmly believe that developing nuclear reactors for use in space is long overdue, and there are many potential applications, including improved communications, remote sensing, and propulsion systems. What do you think are the most exciting and beneficial applications for nuclear reactors in space? I agree with the view that the introduction of nuclear power in space technologies is seriously behind schedule, and that is one of the reasons for the decline of the worldwide rate of growth in space exploration during the past 20 to 30 years. NPPS transport systems open up qualitatively new potentialities in space, in particular for improved information systems and the possibility of protecting the Earth from asteroids. They also open the way toward achieving compact power units for use in space, including on other planetary bodies, as well as for expeditions into deep space. Because of the development of variable-trajectory spacecraft, it is becoming possible to do efficient space debris clean-up and to supply electricity to other spacecraft. In a number of emergency situations, it would be possible to redirect spacecraft onto their intended trajectories. This will bring space communications and remote Earth sensing to a new level, which would not have been achievable using spacecraft based on solar or chemical energy sources.