Nuclear Powerd Vehicles - A long-cherished dream of Mankind

We have been hearing since our childhood that the fuels are gonna exhaust soon and it’s not false too because sooner or later, the mines are going to be empty and then all our cars and bikes are going to be the exhibition pieces. It’s not the only problem with the conventional fuel resources. The major concern about them is the pollution generated as their by-product. If you are feeling guilty of yourself for contributing so much to the global pollution levels then you must consider this fact over here. The top 15 container ships (consuming about 10,000 litres of diesel per hour) of the world collectively generate more pollution than the whole automobiles of the world combined. Yes, you read it right. A major share of the fuel consumption and the pollution comes from the containers, transportation and defence vehicles.  But, just think about a vehicle which can run for hundreds of thousands of miles without having to refuel again and almost zero emissions. I’m not talking about any sci-fi novel or movie. The idea is actually practical if you can come over certain limitations. The unlimited and uninterrupted source of power can be accessed through the nuclear energy. Many researches have been directed toward this direction with an investment of billions of dollars all around the world.

We all are aware about the potentials of nuclear energy. It is estimated that a nuclear car if made, can run for hundreds of years without any refuelling with just 8 grams of thorium as the fuel. Ford had proposed a concept car – Ford Nucleon in 1958, which was said to be a future nuclear car.

 The concept was never transformed into a scale model but it’s mock-up can be viewed at the Henry Ford Museum, Dearborn in Michigan. The model didn’t have any IC engine, instead it had a uranium fission reactor at the rear compartment which was used to drive a steam engine ultimately driving the car. The main reason due to which the Ford Nucleon could never come to the roads was the impractical size of the nuclear reactors for the car. The nuclear reactors as shown in the movies are huge (by huge I mean very heavy and enormous) in size making it impossible to mount on the normal vehicles. It’s theoretically possible to design the smaller reactors but even the highly advanced smaller 4^th gen nuclear reactors produce around 300 megawatts of energy which is around 2000 times that of a normal car. Above that, they weigh around 50 tons. If by any means, you are able to design a compact reactor then also another major and more formidable problem is their nuclear radiation which is more formidable than you can imagine. The world has already witnessed the harmful effects of the radiation in the Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Though we are not talking about the nuclear bomb, the effects will be considerable if anyone is exposed to the radiation without any protection.

These are the major limitations in the way of our long-cherished dream of free and green energy. But the nuclear power seems to be more meaningful for the military submarines, ships, aircraft carriers and the massive icebreakers where you need massive power and need to be on voyage for months and years. The possibilities of nuclear powered bombers which could go around the globe without any refuelling led to the investment of a huge sum of money by both US and USSR during the cold war but none could get anything appreciable. Many new container ship makers are thinking about the nuclear energy but as for now, they are moving toward more efficient diesel engines. While talking about the nuclear powered aircrafts, then I think no organization will think to bear such a high cost of R&D when we already have the inflight refuelling option. NASA is also doing researches on nuclear powered rocket as it would reduce the weight substantially due to the absence of separate oxidizers.

Nuclear powered vehicles are a long-cherished dream of mankind but still a huge amount of R&D is needed in this area and as for now, the days are far when the refuelling stations would not be seen by the roadsides and the nuclear powered vehicles will be a reality and not just a concept…..!