Scientific American: “In 1959 Ford Motor Company built a model chassis for the Nucleon, which would be powered by steam from a microreactor. Needless to say it was never completed, but the model can be seen at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan.”
Wikipedia: “Ford envisioned… that the vehicle would get 5,000 miles before the reactor would have to be exchanged for a new one.”
The average American now drives about 14,000 miles a year. So, roughly three times a year the fissioning, uranium-filled power source would need to be replaced.
Certainly nothing inconvenient about that. Would the Jiffy Reactor Swap have free popcorn served in lead bags?
It’s a shame Ford didn’t incorporate this bold technology a decade later, when it introduced the Pinto. The fiery glow from a rear-ended atomic car would have eliminated the need for traffic cones and made it easy for a towtruck to locate the wreckage.
Leave a Reply