Nuclear Powered Buses

[Swordman]

You know, this could totally be a thing. They don't travel particularly fast and they can be engineered in a way so that it would be impossible to break the reactor vessel in a collision.

The reactor would have to be quite small and properly shielded (which would add weight), but I'm sure it's not beyond the wit of man.

One bus would be able to run for many years without releasing any of those noxious diesel emissions into the atmosphere.

Whadya think?

[The Vambo]

Swordman said:

You know, this could totally be a thing. They don't travel particularly fast and they can be engineered in a way so that it would be impossible to break the reactor vessel in a collision.

The reactor would have to be quite small and properly shielded (which would add weight), but I'm sure it's not beyond the wit of man.

One bus would be able to run for many years without releasing any of those noxious diesel emissions into the atmosphere.

Whadya think?

Get back to bed.

[Swordman]

The Vambo said:

Get back to bed.

[Zad]

I think a terrorist with an angle grinder and a welding set or thermite lance would love it.

[Swordman]

Zad said:

I think a terrorist with an angle grinder and a welding set or thermite lance would love it.

It'd be down to the bus conductor to not let anyone with a thermal lance on the bus.

[Motorrad]

Already tried in the 70's. It was a disaster.

[Dave Hedgehog]

What if 2 of them collided and crossed streams?

[Balmoral]

Motorrad said:

Already tried in the 70's. It was a disaster.

You eat one lousy foot and they call you a cannibal. What a world!

[SimonD]

Motorrad said:

Already tried in the 70's. It was a disaster.

Oooh, that stirs a memory. Name the film/program?

[robinessex]

Various companies have proposed a nuclear powered aircraft. Saunders Roe on the IOW did a study.

[DrDeAtH]

Motorrad said:

Already tried in the 70's. It was a disaster.

Are you not confusing this with something out of the wacky races?

Edited by DrDeAtH on Friday 25th July 08:15

[TheGroover]

SimonD said:

Motorrad said:

Already tried in the 70's. It was a disaster.

Oooh, that stirs a memory. Name the film/program?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074205/

[Dr Jekyll]

robinessex said:

Various companies have proposed a nuclear powered aircraft. Saunders Roe on the IOW did a study.

I think a couple of aircraft have actually flown with a working reactor on board, not sure if they got as far as powering the aircraft with it though.

[k-ink]

^
Moral of the story - never fit Nankangs to a nuclear powered bus.

[Steve_W]

Motorrad said:

Already tried in the 70's. It was a disaster.

Blimey - haven't seen that in ages!

"We're breaking wind at 90!"

[Rick_1138]

There is a good You Tube video on the nuclear powered planes. They were massive, too heavy with the shielding, and basically the stuff that came out the turbines was basically unfiltered fallout particles, and anyone in the things would get irradiated pretty quickly even with shielding.

Was a bit of a non starter.

[DanielSan]

Dave Hedgehog said:

What if 2 of them collided and crossed streams?

It would be bad.

[JDMDrifter]

In theory a fantastic idea, but near impossible to achieve. With the confines of a bus how on earth would they manage to prevent passengers from getting radiation poisoning?

[GoodDoc]

Dr Jekyll said:

robinessex said:

Various companies have proposed a nuclear powered aircraft. Saunders Roe on the IOW did a study.

I think a couple of aircraft have actually flown with a working reactor on board, not sure if they got as far as powering the aircraft with it though.

The americans converted a B-36 bomber (that had been damaged in a tornado) to house a nuclear reactor. The theory was the heat from the reactor could power a conventional jet engine. In the late 50s they got as far as actually flying it with the reactor running, but never with the reactor powering the engines.

They eventually gave up on the idea given the large number of drawbacks. For example, the engines had to be run all the time, even on the ground, to keep the reactor cool. It needed over 10 tons of shielding to keep the crew safe, which cut into the bomb load, and then there was the fact that when the inevitable crashes occurred you had a significant clean up problem.

As crazy it now seems this was done in the wonderful post war period when Nuclear power was seen as a solution to almost any problem.

[greygoose]

GoodDoc said:

As crazy it now seems this was done in the wonderful post war period when Nuclear power was seen as a solution to almost any problem.

If those scientists had tried a bit harder we could all be in jet cars by now .