Prospects for using lunar soil in the thermal scheme of a nuclear power plant with thermoelectric energy conversion

Abstract

The present paper provides the assessment of the thermal circuit for a lunar nuclear power plant using lunar soil to cool the cold junction of a thermoelectric generator and utilize unconverted heat. A mathematical description of the main processes and calculations were used to demonstrate energy generation and excess heat utilization schemes based on the thermal conductivity of the soil as of little promise given a wide range of soil thermal conductivity coefficients. Most probably, heat engines based on the difference in the temperature on the Moon surface and deep in the lunar soil are also not capable of functioning for any significant amount of time.