{"id":55123,"date":"2026-02-15T21:39:23","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T21:39:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bis-space.com\/shop\/product\/a-subcritical-plasma-core-nuclear-reactor-for-continuous-acceleration-of-interplanetary-and-cislunar-spacecraft\/"},"modified":"2026-02-16T00:02:02","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T00:02:02","slug":"jbis-078-08-0262","status":"publish","type":"product","link":"https:\/\/bis-space.com\/shop\/product\/jbis-078-08-0262\/","title":{"rendered":"A Subcritical Plasma-core Nuclear Reactor for Continuous Acceleration of Interplanetary and Cislunar Spacecraft"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p2\"><b>Mark A. Stull<\/b><\/p>\n<p>jbis-078-08-0262<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><b>DOI <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.59332\/jbis-078-08-0262\">https:\/\/doi.org\/10.59332\/jbis-078-08-0262<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">Subcritical nuclear reactors do not employ a self-sustaining chain reaction. Instead, the fission reaction is driven by an external neutron source. As a result, the reaction is controlled differently than in conventional critical reactors, potentially enabling subcritical reactors to generate higher power and power density (power per unit mass). This makes them candidates to drive plasma thrusters that can generate high thrust with specific impulse well in excess of that achievable by chemical or nuclear thermal rockets. Specific impulse in excess of 5,000 seconds would reduce the propellant mass needed to achieve a given acceleration, enabling spacecraft to continuously accelerate over solar system distances, dramatically reducing travel times. One type of subcritical reactor, an accelerator-driven system, in which a proton beam bombards a magnetically contained fission-fuel plasma, appears particularly promising.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><b>Keywords: <\/b>Subcritical, Nuclear, Reactor, Plasma, Fission, Propulsion<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":54679,"template":"","meta":[],"pwb-brand":[],"product_brand":[],"product_cat":[56,59,3901],"product_tag":[],"class_list":["post-55123","product","type-product","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","product_cat-journal-of-the-bis","product_cat-papers","product_cat-2025-papers","first","instock","downloadable","virtual","purchasable","product-type-simple","czr-hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"brands":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bis-space.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product\/55123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bis-space.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bis-space.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/product"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bis-space.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bis-space.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"pwb-brand","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bis-space.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pwb-brand?post=55123"},{"taxonomy":"product_brand","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bis-space.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_brand?post=55123"},{"taxonomy":"product_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bis-space.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_cat?post=55123"},{"taxonomy":"product_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bis-space.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_tag?post=55123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}