ESA Document - Emits - ESA

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6.5.1 Pre-launch operations
HMM
Assessment Study
Report: CDF-20(A)
February 2004
page 408 of 422
During the pre-launch phase, the reactor core would undergo 0-power testing to verify the
neutronics of the core. The other subsystems would be tested independently from the core
operations. At launch, there would not be any significant amount of fission products present.
The reactor would not be made critical during the cruise phase.
6.5.2 Start-up
Once the reactor would be safely landed on the surface, shielding construction would need to be
undertaken. Different options, including robotic ones are proposed but need further assessment.
To a certain degree depending on the final design of the reactor, some sort of assembly might be
required.
Reactor start-up still needs some degree of further investigations. Different options are possible.
It is assumed that the start-up would be highly automatised and last of the order of several hours.
6.5.3 Nominal operations
During nominal operations, no human intervention should be necessary. The power output would
probably not be adjustable, but permanent and constant.
6.5.4 Emergency operations
There certainly is a need for a possibly human intervention in reactor operations at any time. The
minimum intervention options will include at least an immediate emergency shutdown, in which
case the system would have enough redundancy for continued heat removal from the core.