Scott Dorsey wrote:
> Paul in Houston TX > wrote:
>> wrote:
>>> We have nucular powered submarines, what about a
>>> land vehicle? How small can you make a urannium
>>> steam engine?
>>>
>>> It strikes me as the ultimate carbon emission reducer -
>> Plutonium pack, like on Voyager satellites.
>> Small, efficient. A plutonium pack in every garage.
>
> Thermoelectric packs are very good for giving a small amount of current for
> a long time period. When I was a kid, the Westinghouse Home of the Future
> had one in the backyard, and the Soviets used a lot of them on buoys that
> needed to stay afloat for a long time.
>
> The problem is they aren't at all useful for an application that needs high
> peak power and relatively low average power. That's why the Ford Nucleon
> was going to use twin turbines, connected to generators, more or less like
> a nuclear version of the Prius.
>
> I believe there is a Wikipedia entry for the Nucleon.
> --scott

Interesting! Thanks Scott.