For a sustained human presence on the Moon, robust in-situ resource utilisation supply chains to provide consumables and propellant are necessary. A promising process is molten salt electrolysis, which typically requires temperatures in excess of 900°C. Fission reactors do not depend on solar irradiance and are thus well suited for power generation on the Moon, especially during the 14-day lunar night. As of now, fission reactors have only been considered for electric power generation, but the reactor coolant could also be used directly to heat those processes to their required temperatures. In this work, a concept for a co-generation fission power plant on the Moon that can directly heat a MSE plant to the required temperatures and provide a surplus of electrical energy for the lunar base is presented. The neutron transport code Serpent 2 is used to model a ceramic core, gas-cooled very-high-temperature microreactor design and estimate its lifetime with a burnup simulation in hot conditions with an integrated step-wise criticality search. Calculations show a neutronically feasible operation time of at least 10 years at 100kW thermal power. The obtained power distributions lay a basis for further thermal-hydraulic studies on the technical feasibility of the reactor design and the power plant.

翻译：为维持人类在月球的长期存在，需要建立稳健的原位资源利用供应链以提供消耗品和推进剂。熔盐电解是一种具有前景的工艺，通常需要超过900°C的温度。裂变反应堆不依赖太阳辐照，因此非常适合在月球上发电，特别是在长达14天的月夜期间。目前裂变反应堆仅被考虑用于电力生产，但反应堆冷却剂也可直接用于将相关工艺加热至所需温度。本研究提出一种月球联合发电裂变电站概念，该电站可直接将MSE（熔盐电解）设施加热至所需温度，并为月球基地提供富余电能。采用中子输运程序Serpent 2对陶瓷堆芯、气体冷却的超高温微堆设计进行建模，并通过集成步进临界搜索的燃耗模拟估算其在高温工况下的运行寿命。计算表明，在100kW热功率条件下，该设计在核物理层面至少具备10年运行可行性。获得的功率分布为后续开展反应堆设计及电站技术可行性的热工水力研究奠定了基础。