In article ,
wrote:

"NASA has conducted tests of a nuclear reactor
intended to generate electricity in space . . .

The effort made use of an experimental
reactor named "Flattop" and was inauspiciously
dubbed Demonstration Using Flattop Fissions
(DUFF)."

I foresee certain, ahem, difficulties with trying to apply this in the
world outside of Los Alamos.

http://www.osti.gov/bridge/servlets/...S4/6463833.pdf

"Flattop (Fig. 5) is at the opposite extreme from our
unreflected critical assemblies, as it is a thick natural
uranium reflector (0.48-m o.d.) around spherical cores of
uranium (93.2% U-235 and 98.1% U-233) and plutonium
(94.9% Pu-239)."

This isn't a nuclear reactor; it's a see-how-close-you-can-come-to-a-
nuclear-bomb.

--
Kathy Rages