Let us look into another issue. It is the wish of all people to promote the progress of the peaceful use of science and technology, which will bring invaluable benefits to mankind. The recent world situation indicates that today is the most appropriate time for utilizing space for peaceful purposes. To date, space development has progressed largely for military purposes. However, now that space development for such purposes is being de-emphasized, the only way to promote space development and make it as a new technology field for peaceful purposes is to introduce economics into this field. In the interests of promoting science and technology for the progress of the utilization of nuclear energy and space development, we would like to propose a concept of lunar energy park (LEP) as a means to cope with future energy crises and global environmental problems. LEP will mainly consist of nuclear power plants constructed on the Moon, and a power transmission system to transfer energy produced there to the Earth through relay satellites in geostationary orbit, using lasers. The concept of LEP is shown in figure 1 and the details are described below. Lunar Energy Park The Moon has appropriate conditions for nuclear power generation, since it has rich nuclear resources and abundant raw materials for plant construction. In addition, since the Moon has no atmosphere and is exposed to powerful cosmic and radioactive rays, such problems as shielding as on the Earth do not arise. In nuclear power generation on the Earth, turbines and water are used. On the Moon, however, the lunar energy park will convert nuclear energy directly into electricity by means of a maintenance-free and highly reliable reactor incorporating innovative concepts. The LEP consists of such facilities as nuclear fuel supply plants, nuclear power generation facilities and power transmission facilities. The electricity produced from the Moon is transmitted to the energy relay satellites in geostationary orbit via laser beam of wavelength with high transmitting efficiency. Then, at the relay satellites it is converted to laser light of wavelength with characteristics of high transmission efficiency in air, which is then transmitted to energy-receiving stations located on isolated islands on the Earth. From the receiving stations, the energy is distributed to various districts. Nuclear Reactor The LEP reactor is a new type different from those on Earth. By reducing the nuclear energy output to an extremely low level through the low-reaction operation, the heat load (q) reaches a few W/cm^, approximately a hundredth that of a reactor on Earth, and maximum heating source temperature is maintained at about 2,000K. Power generation employs a direct energy conversion system consisting of thermionic/thermoelectric composite converters, which is shown in figure 2 The efficiency of such direct converters is expected to be greatly improved due to the FGM (Functionally Gradient Material) technology. [1] The conversion elements are directly wrapped on the nuclear fuel.
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