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Kurchatov Center’s chief shows Putin model of lunar settlement, small nuclear power plant

Mikhail Kovalchuk noted that while developing the model, the researchers had an idea of covering it with a special cap

MOSCOW, February 25. /TASS/. The Kurchatov Institute National Research Center’s chief Mikhail Kovalchuk has introduced to Russian President Vladimir Putin the idea of a heat protection system to be used in a hypothetical lunar nuclear power plant.

Kovalchuk showed Putin a model of a bio-eco-settlement with a low-power nuclear power plant and a model of a bioreactor system for carbon dioxide utilization.

"When we were working on it, we realized this: we're conducting research into a future power plant on the Moon. But there is a great problem. Everyone knows why a teapot cools down here. The air and molecules around it heat up and move away. The teapot cools down. On the Moon there's no air. You have a reactor, and it gets hot, it melts, and you can't remove the heat by convection; it's only radiation, so you have to build huge radiation panels," Kovalchuk told Putin.

He noted that while developing the model, the researchers had an idea of covering it with a special cap.

"You'll cover up the heat that has nowhere to go in space on the Moon. Then it'll be like inside a Las Vegas casino," Kovalchuk said.

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