Nuclear Pumped Lasers (NPLs) offer unique advantages for a variety of high-power laser applications. NPLs receive pump energy from nuclear reactions created by neutrons entering the laser medium. This technique offers a high specific power and compactness of nuclear energy-sources that pump a large volume of the laser-active medium. The unique large excitation volume results in a high energy output. In addition, the direct use of neutrons from a fission reactor avoids intermediate energy conversion steps. The concept explored here extracts both electrical and laser outputs from a single “hybrid” or dual purpose reactor. Simultaneous electrical production helps defray the high cost of such a facility, making space power beaming more practical.
Nuclear Pumped Lasers for space power beaming
Space technology and applications international forum - 1998 ; 1998 ; Albuquerque,New Mexico (USA)
AIP Conference Proceedings ; 420 , 1 ; 1081-1086
1998-01-15
6 pages
Conference paper
Electronic Resource
English
Nuclear Pumped Lasers for Space Power Beaming
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