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Would you mind backing up the assertion about convection being the mechanism of sodium transport? e.g. on earth are you saying the sterling part wouldn't work if the hot fluid had to traverse say down (a gravity gradient) instead of up?

The wiki page you linked specifically mentions deep space applications as a design goal.

I'm not sure about the sodium heat pipes but the alcohol vapor heat pipes you see in electronics typically use an internal wick to return the working fluid.

Worst case scenario is you put the reactor next to the toilet, in the rotating part of the spacecraft, to solve the problem with convection...

These two things are enormously simplified when there is gravity.

"Worst case scenario is you put the reactor next to the toilet..."

Please don't give any ideas to our collective employers.

The Stirling converters will need a heatsink which can connect to an actively circulated coolant even in zero g.

Thanks for the article.

Convection still works in zero g, it's just driven by pressure gradients instead of density gradients.