page_title: ML-1
section_title: Concept
hierarchical_section_title: ML-1 / Concept
caption_attribution_description: English: Simplified diagram of the ML-1
context_page_description: ML-1 was an experimental nuclear reactor built as part of the US Army Nuclear Power Program between 1961 and 1965. It was intended to provide truck-mounted nuclear power that could accompany troops from place to place and provide power to command and communication centers, evacuation hospitals, depots, and radar and weapons systems.
  Unlike the other seven reactors of this program, it did not use a steam turbine, but instead used a nitrogen coolant at 315 psia to drive a closed-cycle gas turbine. It was designed to produce 3.3 MWt of heat and 400 kW of shaft horsepower with an outlet temperature of 1200 °F.
  Though the concept of a nitrogen closed cycle gas turbine was strong, the design failed to live up to expectations, and was abandoned with the closure of ML-1 in 1965 after several major refits and with only a few hundred hours of testing completed in all. Similar concepts have been more recently proposed as part of the PBMR program as derivatives thereof.
  A 1964 economic analysis concluded that the overall cost of purchasing and operating the ML-1 for a period of 10 years would be about ten times that of a comparable diesel plant at normal fuel costs.
context_section_description: The basic concept of a closed-cycle gas turbine using nitrogen, a relatively inert gas, in a closed loop with a fission heat source interposed between the compressor and turbine stages of a gas turbine was and remains very strong.
  As such, the Atomic Energy Commission saw that such a reactor might meet the needs of the Army; the Army was interested, and the design and fabrication process began.
caption: Simplified diagram of the ML-1
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