Nuclear lightbulb
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A nuclear lightbulb is a specific type of gas core reactor rocket that separates the nuclear fuel from the coolant/propellant with a quartz wall. It is operated at such high temperature (approx. 25,000°C ) that the vast majority of the electromagnetic emissions are in the hard ultraviolet range. Fused silica is almost completely transparent to this light, so it is used to 'bottle' the uranium hexafluoride and allow the light to escape and be used to heat hydrogen gas for a rocket propellant or to generate electricity using photovoltaics.
This type of reactor shows great promise in both of these roles, as a rocket engine it has the enormous advantage of being completely reusable, greatly reducing costs by amortizing the cost of the rocket over many launches. This is very attractive compared to the current practice of using disposable rockets. As a method to generate electricity, nuclear lightbulbs can be combined with photovoltaics.
