surface is susceptible to degradation. Studies conducted (Ref. A12) to analyze this found that proton flux in geosynchronous orbit could possibly cause large decreases in reflectivity. Ref. A4 states that many thermal conversion approaches appear promising, but points out that this may be because significant problems not yet uncovered may be revealed when development proceeds to the depth that silicon solar cells are at today. 3. Space Nuclear Power Section III discussed the nuclear satellite power station concept. There are, in addition, a host of technological problems and requirements that must be dealt with prior to going ahead with this concept. There are a large number of technological problems associated with breeder reactors in general, whether ground based or orbital. These are not discussed here since these problems are being addressed in the context of terrestrial nuclear systems. The orbital nuclear power stations do pose some additional problems. These may be categorized as problems related to: • Safety • Materials • Efficiency • Cooling The related problems of transportation, microwave transmission, energy conversion, and large space structures are discussed elsewhere in this section. a. Safety The mere idea of nuclear reactors orbiting the earth is probably repugnant to most U.S. citizens (to say nothing of non-citizens) at this time and is a problem that would have to be overcome even if all technological problems were fairly well solved. The technical safety requirement may be fairly stated as follows: Public exposure to nuclear radiation from either system operation or failure (including reactor meltdown/vaporization/release) shall not exceed the current U.S. public exposure standard.
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