Recent Comment
Share
Holy Crap! You think the Ford Explorer is an environmental disaster, check out this concept from the '50s. That's right, it's a nuclear powered car. The nuclear core is in the back, with the fancy metal plate covering it.
The Ford Nucleon's passenger cabin was designed to be pushed far forward, to protect the drivers from the nuclear material in the event of a fender bender. Of course, in a real high-speed crash, the placement of the passenger cabin wouldn't matter much...unless you could get it several city blocks away.
It's good to keep an eye on visions from the past so we can keep our own visions for the future in check. Yes, nuclear power enabled us to do some amazing things, but problems in safety kept it from realizing the potential that the world envisioned for it in the late '50s.
There are real, insurmountable problems that halt the progress of some technologies...or at least, they halt the progress of technologies toward the trunk of your car.
Subscribe to this comment's feed
written by James Aach, October 10, 2007
If you'd like an entertaining insider's look at nuclear power, see my novel "Rad Decision", available at no cost to readers at http://RadDecision.blogspot.com and in paperback. Endorsed by Stewart Brand, noted environmentalist and founder of The Whole Earth Catalog.
-
- +0
-
-
written by Joel, October 10, 2007
If you can get the critical mass of the fuel down to the point that it fits in a passenger car, you have bomb-making material. Plain and simple. That's probably the real reason we'll never see nuclear reactors in cars.
It would be interesting to see a series hybrid with a (decay-powered) electric generator to charge the batteries. Shielding might be workable in that case, and it could use an isotope that's easy to get anyway, like Thorium. A reaction that produces high-energy neutrons would basically mean irradiating any tailgaters and/or people stuck in traffic beside you, but if you don't need a chain-reaction, you're free to choose isotopes with easier-to-shield radiation.
-
- +0
-
-
written by weee recycling, October 10, 2007
Think of the timing that Ford were at... it would have conspired to give us the Nuclear Powered Pinto - Now that would have changed America!
-
- +0
-
-
written by Fal Bak, March 15, 2010
-
- +0
-
-
written by No Name, November 14, 2010
-
- +0
-
-
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
Seems, with today's high density metals and ceramics, someone could take a 'soup sized can' and make a decent power system -- and still fall within the 'standard' weight limitations without tons of shielding to sustain 120-200 mile an hour impacts.