An overview of nuclear thermal propulsion design will be presented along with a brief history of Project Rover/NERVA to help set a background for discussing the challenges of NTP and then hear about some of USNC’s solutions while working under the NASA Phase 1 Nuclear Thermal Propulsion Program.
Vishal Patel
Dr. Vishal Patel is Ultra Safe Nuclear’s Program Manager for Nuclear Thermal Propulsion. He holds a PhD in nuclear engineering from Texas A&M and specializes in neutronics, thermal hydraulics and multi-physics coupling.
He was a key contributor to the work in the early 2010s that showed that nuclear thermal propulsion can be designed with civilian- and commercial-friendly high-assay low-enriched uranium, which helped kick off the last decade of NTP work for the country.