Nuclear propulsion includes a wide variety of propulsion methods that use some form of nuclear reaction as their primary power source. The idea of using nuclear material for propulsion dates back to the beginning of the 20th century. In 1903 it was hypothesized that radioactive material, radium, might be a suitable fuel for engines to propel cars, planes, and boats. H. G. Wells picked up this idea in his 1914 fiction work '' The World Set Free''. PressurizedWaterReactor

Surface ships, submarines, and torpedoes

Nuclear-powered vessels are mainly military

submarine A submarine (or sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability. The term is also sometimes used historically or colloquially to refer to remotely op ...

s, and

aircraft carrier An aircraft carrier is a warship that serves as a seagoing airbase, equipped with a full-length flight deck and facilities for carrying, arming, deploying, and recovering aircraft. Typically, it is the capital ship of a fleet, as it allows a ...

s. Russia is the only country that currently has nuclear-powered civilian surface ships, mainly icebreakers. The US Navy currently (as of 2022) has 11 aircraft carriers and 70 submarines in service, that are all powered by nuclear reactors. For more detailed articles see:

Civilian maritime use

* See Nuclear marine propulsion *

List of civilian nuclear ships Nuclear marine propulsion is propulsion of a ship or submarine with heat provided by a nuclear reactor. The power plant heats water to produce steam for a turbine used to turn the ship's propeller through a gearbox or through an electric generat ...

Military maritime use

* Nuclear navy *

List of United States Naval reactors List of United States Naval reactors is a comprehensive annotated list of all naval reactors designed, built, or used by the United States Navy. Reactor designations Each nuclear reactor design is given a three-character designation consisti ...

* Soviet naval reactors * Nuclear submarine

Torpedo

Russia's Channel One Television news broadcast a picture and details of a nuclear-powered torpedo called ''Status-6'' on about 12 November 2015. The torpedo was stated as having a range of up to 10,000 km, a cruising speed of 100 knots, and operational depth of up to 1000 metres below the surface. The torpedo carried a 100-megaton nuclear warhead. One of the suggestions emerging in the summer of 1958 from the first meeting of the scientific advisory group that became JASON was for "a nuclear-powered torpedo that could roam the seas almost indefinitely".

Aircraft and missiles

Research into nuclear-powered aircraft was pursued during the

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...

by the United States and the Soviet Union as they would presumably allow a country to keep nuclear bombers in the air for extremely long periods of time, a useful tactic for

nuclear deterrence Deterrence theory refers to the scholarship and practice of how threats or limited force by one party can convince another party to refrain from initiating some other course of action. The topic gained increased prominence as a military strategy ...

. Neither country created any operational nuclear aircraft. One design problem, never adequately solved, was the need for heavy shielding to protect the crew from radiation sickness. Since the advent of

ICBM An intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) is a ballistic missile with a range greater than , primarily designed for nuclear weapons delivery (delivering one or more thermonuclear warheads). Conventional, chemical, and biological weapons c ...

s in the 1960s the tactical advantage of such aircraft was greatly diminished and respective projects were cancelled. Because the technology was inherently dangerous it was not considered in non-military contexts. Nuclear-powered missiles were also researched and discounted during the same period. Aircraft * Convair X-6 *

Myasishchev M-50 The Myasishchev M-50 (russian: Мясищев М-50; NATO reporting name Bounder) is a Soviet prototype four-jet engine supersonic strategic bomber which never attained service. Only one flightworthy prototype was built, which was first flown i ...

- '' Aviation Week'' hoax *

Aircraft Nuclear Propulsion The Aircraft Nuclear Propulsion (ANP) program and the preceding Nuclear Energy for the Propulsion of Aircraft (NEPA) project worked to develop a nuclear propulsion system for aircraft. The United States Army Air Forces initiated Project NEPA on ...

- General Electric's project to build a nuclear-powered bomber * Tupolev Tu-95LAL Missiles *

Project Pluto Project Pluto was a United States government program to develop nuclear-powered ramjet engines for use in cruise missiles. Two experimental engines were tested at the Nevada Test Site (NTS) in 1961 and 1964 respectively. On 1 January 1957, th ...

- which developed the SLAM missile, that used a nuclear-powered air ramjet for propulsion * Burevestnik nuclear-powered cruise missile announced by Vladimir Putin in 2018.

Spacecraft

Many types of nuclear propulsion have been proposed, and some of them (e.g.

NERVA Nerva (; originally Marcus Cocceius Nerva; 8 November 30 – 27 January 98) was Roman emperor from 96 to 98. Nerva became emperor when aged almost 66, after a lifetime of imperial service under Nero and the succeeding rulers of the Flavian dy ...

) tested for spacecraft applications.

Nuclear pulse propulsion

* Project Orion, first engineering design study of nuclear pulse (i.e., atomic explosion) propulsion * Project Daedalus, 1970s British Interplanetary Society study of a fusion rocket * Project Longshot, US Naval Academy-NASA nuclear pulse propulsion design *

AIMStar AIMStar was a proposed antimatter-catalyzed nuclear pulse propulsion craft that uses clouds of antiprotons to initiate fission and fusion within fuel pellets. A magnetic nozzle derives motive force from the resulting explosions. The design was stud ...

, a proposed

Antimatter-catalyzed nuclear pulse propulsion Antimatter-catalyzed nuclear pulse propulsion (also antiproton-catalyzed nuclear pulse propulsion) is a variation of nuclear pulse propulsion based upon the injection of antimatter into a mass of nuclear fuel to initiate a nuclear chain reaction f ...

craft that uses clouds of antiprotons to initiate fission and fusion within fuel pellets *

ICAN-II ICAN-II was a proposed crewed interplanetary spacecraft that used the antimatter-catalyzed micro-fission (ACMF) engine as its main form of propulsion. The spacecraft was designed at Penn State University in the 1990s as a way to accomplish a cre ...

, a proposed crewed interplanetary spacecraft that used the

antimatter-catalyzed nuclear pulse propulsion Antimatter-catalyzed nuclear pulse propulsion (also antiproton-catalyzed nuclear pulse propulsion) is a variation of nuclear pulse propulsion based upon the injection of antimatter into a mass of nuclear fuel to initiate a nuclear chain reaction f ...

engine as its main form of propulsion *External Pulsed Plasma Propulsion (EPPP), a propulsion concept by NASA that derives its thrust from plasma waves generated from a series of small, supercritical fission/fusion pulses behind an object in space.

Nuclear thermal rocket

*Bimodal nuclear thermal rockets conduct nuclear fission reactions similar to those employed at nuclear power plants including submarines. The energy is used to heat the liquid hydrogen propellant. Advocates of nuclear-powered spacecraft point out that at the time of launch, there is almost no radiation released from the nuclear reactors. Nuclear-powered rockets are not used to lift off the Earth. Nuclear thermal rockets can provide great performance advantages compared to chemical propulsion systems. Nuclear power sources could also be used to provide the spacecraft with electrical power for operations and scientific instrumentation. *

(Nuclear Energy for Rocket Vehicle Applications), a US nuclear thermal rocket program *

Project Rover Project Rover was a United States project to develop a nuclear-thermal rocket that ran from 1955 to 1973 at the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory (LASL). It began as a United States Air Force project to develop a nuclear-powered upper stage for ...

, an American project to develop a nuclear thermal rocket. The program ran at the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory from 1955 through 1972. *

Project Timberwind Project Timberwind aimed to develop nuclear thermal rockets. Initial funding by the Strategic Defense Initiative ("Star Wars") from 1987 through 1991 totaled $139 million (then-year). The proposed rocket was later expanded into a larger design afte ...

(1987–1991), part of the

Strategic Defense Initiative The Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), derisively nicknamed the "''Star Wars'' program", was a proposed missile defense system intended to protect the United States from attack by ballistic strategic nuclear weapons (intercontinental ballistic ...

RD-0410 RD-0410 (РД-0410, GRAU index: 11B91) was a Soviet nuclear thermal rocket engine developed by the Chemical Automatics Design Bureau in Voronezh from 1965 through the 1980s using liquid hydrogen propellant. The engine was ground-tested at the Semip ...

, a Soviet nuclear thermal rocket engine developed from 1965 through the 1980s

Ramjet

* Bussard ramjet, a conceptual interstellar fusion ramjet named after

Robert W. Bussard Robert W. Bussard (August 11, 1928 – October 6, 2007) was an American physicist who worked primarily in nuclear fusion energy research. He was the recipient of the Schreiber-Spence Achievement Award for STAIF-2004. He was also a fellow of th ...

Direct nuclear

Fission fragment rocket The fission-fragment rocket is a rocket engine design that directly harnesses hot nuclear fission products for thrust, as opposed to using a separate fluid as working mass. The design can, in theory, produce very high specific impulse while still ...

Fission sail The fission sail is a type of spacecraft propulsion proposed by Robert Forward that uses fission fragments to propel a large solar sail-like craft. It is similar in concept to the fission-fragment rocket in that the fission by-products are directl ...

Fusion rocket A fusion rocket is a theoretical design for a rocket driven by fusion propulsion that could provide efficient and sustained acceleration in space without the need to carry a large fuel supply. The design requires fusion power technology beyond cu ...

Gas core reactor rocket Gas core reactor rockets are a conceptual type of rocket that is propelled by the exhausted coolant of a gaseous fission reactor. The nuclear fission reactor core may be either a gas or plasma. They may be capable of creating specific impulses ...

* Nuclear salt-water rocket *

Radioisotope rocket A radioisotope rocket or radioisotope thermal rocket is a type of thermal rocket engine that uses the heat generated by the decay of radioactive elements to heat a working fluid, which is then exhausted through a rocket nozzle to produce thrust. Th ...

Nuclear photonic rocket In a traditional nuclear photonic rocket, an onboard nuclear reactor would generate such high temperatures that the blackbody radiation from the reactor would provide significant thrust. The disadvantage is that it takes much power to generate a s ...

Nuclear electric

* Nuclear electric rocket *

Project Prometheus Project Prometheus (also known as Project Promethian) was established in 2003 by NASA to develop nuclear-powered systems for long-duration space missions. This was NASA's first serious foray into nuclear spacecraft propulsion since the cancellat ...

, NASA development of nuclear propulsion for long-duration spaceflight, begun in 2003

Russian Federal Space Agency development

Anatolij Perminov, head of the Russian Federal Space Agency, announced that it is going to develop a nuclear-powered spacecraft for deep space travel. Preliminary design was done by 2013, and 9 more years are planned for development (in space assembly). The price is set at 17 billion rubles (600 million dollars). The nuclear propulsion would have mega-watt class, provided necessary funding, Roscosmos Head stated. This system would consist of a space nuclear power and a matrix of ion engines. "...Hot inert gas temperature of 1500 °C from the reactor turns turbines. The turbine turns the generator and compressor, which circulates the working fluid in a closed circuit. The working fluid is cooled in the radiator. The generator produces electricity for the same ion (plasma) engine..." According to him, the propulsion will be able to support human mission to Mars, with cosmonauts staying on the Red planet for 30 days. This journey to Mars with nuclear propulsion and a steady acceleration would take six weeks, instead of eight months by using chemical propulsion – assuming thrust of 300 times higher than that of chemical propulsion.

Terrestrial vehicles

Cars

The idea of making cars that used radioactive material, radium, for fuel dates back to at least 1903. Analysis of the concept in 1937 indicated that the driver of such a vehicle might need a 50-ton lead barrier to

shield A shield is a piece of personal armour held in the hand, which may or may not be strapped to the wrist or forearm. Shields are used to intercept specific attacks, whether from close-ranged weaponry or projectiles such as arrows, by means of a ...

them from

radiation In physics, radiation is the emission or transmission of energy in the form of waves or particles through space or through a material medium. This includes: * ''electromagnetic radiation'', such as radio waves, microwaves, infrared, visi ...

. In 1941 Dr R M Langer, a Caltech physicist, espoused the idea of a car powered by uranium-235 in the January edition of '' Popular Mechanics''. He was followed by William Bushnell Stout, designer of the

Stout Scarab The Stout Scarab is a streamlined 1930–1940s American car, designed by William Bushnell Stout and manufactured by Stout Engineering Laboratories and later by Stout Motor Car Company of Detroit, Michigan. The Stout Scarab is credited by s ...

and former

Society of Engineers The Society of Engineers was a British learned society established in 1854. It was the first society to issue the professional title of Incorporated Engineer. It merged with the Institution of Incorporated Engineers (IIE) in 2005, and in 2006 the me ...

president, on 7 August 1945 in '' The New York Times''. The problem of shielding the reactor continued to render the idea impractical. In December 1945, a John Wilson of London, announced he had created an atomic car. This created considerable interest. The Minister of Fuel and Power along with a large press contingent turned out to view it. The car did not show and Wilson claimed that it had been sabotaged. A later court case found that he was a fraud and there was no nuclear-powered car. Despite the shielding problem, through the late 1940s and early 1950s debate continued around the possibility of nuclear-powered cars. The development of nuclear-powered submarines and ships, and experiments to develop a nuclear-powered aircraft at that time kept the idea alive. Russian papers in the mid-1950s reported the development of a nuclear-powered car by Professor V P Romadin, but again shielding proved to be a problem. It was claimed that its laboratories had overcome the shielding problem with a new alloy that absorbed the rays. In 1958 at the height of the

1950s American automobile culture 1950s American automobile culture has had an enduring influence on the culture of the United States, as reflected in popular music, major trends from the 1950s and mainstream acceptance of the "hot rod" culture. The American manufacturing econo ...

there were at least four theoretical nuclear-powered concept cars proposed, the American Ford Nucleon and Studebaker Packard Astral, as well as the French Simca Fulgur designed by Robert Opron and the Arbel Symétric. Apart from these concept models, none were built and no automotive nuclear power plants ever made.

Chrysler Stellantis North America (officially FCA US and formerly Chrysler ()) is one of the " Big Three" automobile manufacturers in the United States, headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan. It is the American subsidiary of the multinational automoti ...

engineer C R Lewis had discounted the idea in 1957 because of estimates that an engine would be required by a car. His view was that an efficient means of storing energy was required for nuclear power to be practical. Despite this, Chrysler's stylists in 1958 drew up some possible designs. In 1959 it was reported that Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company had developed a new rubber compound that was light and absorbed radiation, obviating the need for heavy shielding. A reporter at the time considered it might make nuclear-powered cars and aircraft a possibility. Ford made another potentially nuclear-powered model in 1962 for the Seattle World's Fair, the Ford Seattle-ite XXI. This also never went beyond the initial concept. In 2009, for the hundredth anniversary of

General Motors The General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is the largest automaker in the United States and ...

' acquisition of

Cadillac The Cadillac Motor Car Division () is a division of the American automobile manufacturer General Motors (GM) that designs and builds luxury vehicles. Its major markets are the United States, Canada, and China. Cadillac models are distributed i ...

, Loren Kulesus created

concept art Concept art is a form of visual art used to convey an idea for use in films, video games, animation, comic books, or other media before it is put into the final product. Concept art usually refers to world-building artwork used to inspire the ...

depicting a car powered by thorium.WTF? Cadillac World Thorium Fuel Concept?
/ref>

Other

The

Chrysler TV-8 The Chrysler TV-8 was a tank design project by Chrysler in the 1950s. The tank was intended to be a medium tank capable of land and amphibious warfare. The design was never produced. Description The TV-8 was presented in a proposal by Chrysler Co ...

was an experimental concept tank designed by

in the 1950s. The tank was intended to be a nuclear-powered

medium tank A medium tank is a classification of tanks, particularly prevalent during World War II which represented a compromise between the mobility oriented light tanks and the armour and armament oriented heavy tanks. A medium tank's classification is ...

capable of land and amphibious warfare. The design was never mass-produced. The Mars rover ''Curiosity'' is powered by a radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG), like the successful Viking 1 and

Viking 2 The ''Viking 2'' mission was part of the American Viking program to Mars, and consisted of an orbiter and a lander essentially identical to that of the ''Viking 1'' mission. ''Viking 2'' was operational on Mars for sols ( days; '). The ''Vik ...

Mars landers in 1976.

References

External links

*
S. K. Borowski et al., "Nuclear Thermal Rocket/Vehicle Design Options for Future NASA Missions to the Moon and Mars", U. S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NASA-TM-0107071, September 1993.W. E. Moeckel, "Propulsion Systems for Manned Exploration of the Solar System," U. S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NASA TM X-1864, August 1969.G. R. Schmidt, J. A. Bonometti and P. J. Morton, "Nuclear Pulse Propulsion: Orion and Beyond," Am. Inst. Aero. Astro., AIAA 2000-3856, July 2000.RKA home page in English
*
ソヴィエト連邦における宇宙用原子炉の開発とその実用
*
RKA home page in RussianRussian Space Program
ten speculative concepts from NASA
RW Bussard, An advanced fusion energy system for outer-planet space propulsion, 2003A Survey of Nuclear Propulsion Technologies for Space Applications, A. Micks, March 15, 2013External Pulsed Plasma Propulsion (EPPP)
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