Concept of a Lunar Energy Park MASAYUKI NIINO, KATSUTO KISARA, LIDONG CHEN* Summary: This paper presents a new concept for an energy supply system named Lunar Energy Park (LEP,) as one of the next-generation clean energy sourcse. In this concept, electricity is generated by nuclear power plants built on the Moon and then transmitted to receiving stations on the Earth by laser beam through transporting systems situated on geostationary orbit. The lunar nuclear power plants use a high- efftciency composite energy conversion system consisting of thermionic and thermoelectric generators to change nuclear thermal energy into electricity directly. The nuclear resources are considered to be available from the Moon and the nuclear fuel transport from Earth to Moon is not necessary. Because direct energy conversion systems are used, the lunar nuclear plants can be operated and controlled by robots and are maintenance-free, and so will give no pollution. The key technologies for LEP include improvements of conversion efficiency of both thermionic and thermoelectric converters, and developments of laser-beam power transmission technology. In this paper, the details on the lunar nuclear plant construction, energy conversion system, energy transmission system and the research plan strategies are reviewed. Background Contemporary civilization has developed with the help of the large amount of consumption of fossil fuels such as petroleum, natural gas and coal. It is estimated that fossil fuels, presently serving as the major source of energy, will be exhausted within about 50 years, if the demand for energy continues to grow at an increasing rate of 3% per year. On the other hand, these natural resources are used not only as energy sources, but also as important raw materials for the chemical industry. Accordingly, they have to be conserved as valuable resources of mankind. Furthermore when we turn to environmental problems, it is apparent that the increasing emission of carbon dioxide by fossil fuel combustion poses the serious problem of global warming. To cope with such difficult situation the resources depletion problem and the environmental problem, searching for alternative energy has been being widely examined in various aspects. As for nuclear energy, although it had been expected to become the mainstay of clean alternative energy, nuclear power generation has many difficult problems. Among them are the disposal of radioactive wastes, the obsolescence and renovation of nuclear power facilities, and, as a result the campaign for the total abolition of nuclear power in terms of securing safety, especially since the occurrence of nuclear accidents at Three Mile Island in the USA and Chernobyl in the former USSR. * Kakuda Research Center, National Aerospace Laboratory Koganezawa 1, Kimigaya, Kakuda City, Miyagi 981-15, Japan
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