im not a science wiz

so i don't know much about these things, but damn i don't want airplanes flying over my house if they are powered by nuclear reactors...and what about plane crashes...talk about a bad idea man....nuclear powered submarines are cool, they are slow and in the ocean...what's gonna happen, they sink to the bottom or something, but a plane ....well we all know what a plane can do....BOOM

....nuclear powered submarines are cool, they are slow and in the ocean...what's gonna happen, they sink to the bottom or something,

er? bit more serious than that im afraid,chances are huge recovery operation would be mounted instantly to retrieve or shut down the reactors,if this werent possible were looking at terrible leaks of radiation into the sea over a long period of time causing disastrous long term effects on wildlife and enviroment-as for planes think that will be a long time before we see nuclear powered planes in our skys.

They have produced and tested nuclear powered planes. The only problem was sheilding the crew from radiation!

So I would not worry too much about them flying over your head anytime soon.

yeah and what about the population below, especially near the airports...risidual traces of radiactive exhaust must be pretty deadly, and if not, then seriously threatening to our reproductive capabilities, unless you like that whole 3 headed baby thing

I think you might be worrying a little to much. From what Ive been able to gather, Nuclear airplanes havent even been tested since the 1960's , because of the same concerns you mentioned.

Heres a good site for info.
www.nuclear.com...

and the obligitory quote

The first operating nuclear-powered jet engine was a General Electric modified J-47 turbojet. The first test of the design was a ground test of an assembly called the Heat Transfer Reactor Experiment no. 1. Later, a two-engine assembly was also successfully tested on the ground. The reactor was placed in a horizontal configuration and operated for more than 120 hours, including 65 continuous hours. [Source: Nuclear News, "Jet Engine Runs on Atomic Power", Oct-Nov 1960

[edit on 10/30/04 by Kidfinger]

do those same concerns stop us from making nuclear powered space ships...is that what all those ET believing people are talking about (not saying that i'm not one) that the ET's are getting ready to expose themselves to us to prevent us from bringin nuclear into space 1 because its bad and 2 there are better alternatives which they will need to teach us about...like some kinda of light pulsar enclosed star engine..i dunno...they know???do you know??

They have produced and tested nuclear powered planes. The only problem was sheilding the crew from radiation!

sorry,i stand corrected.

I dont know if contact is about to be made, but I do agree that in the future, there will be better alternatives for space travel. But for now, what you have to understand about space travel is that its so far from earth. There are orbiting sattelites that are nuclear powered. That is why the gov, as well as NASA see it as a viable fuel source. 1 nuclear powered craft could be poweder for decades, even centuries. Thats not so for conventionally fuelled craft. If Nuclear power is handled with GREAT respect and care, it can be a great thing for us. But that therein lays our problem. Humans as a species are not evolved in maturity enough to handle these responsibilities yet. When we quit making weapons out of this stuff, we might figure out a way to fly with it in absolute saftey.

I'm not a science wiz, but nuclear power seems so raw and crude, it seems to me we can have something more balanced to use for space travel, something more harmonizing to the enviroment...i was thinking of light...but like i said i'm no science wiz

If you are interested in other forms of space travel. Look into the solar sails.

Not only are solar sails quite beautiful they're perfect..but arn't they really slow too...to slow for the likes of me... I would think we could have warp speed if you know what i mean

SomewhereInChina - lol, i'm impressed, you accidentally clicked NEW TOPIC instead of REPLY, and yet you still made a decent thread out of it.

But back to your accidental topic, Solar sails take awhile to get up to speed but they do have the potenial to go 1/10 the speed of light. So they will no doubt be used in the future for varies scientific purposes. But they wont be used for small trips like earth to moon, or earth to Mars.

Nasa is going to launch a nuclear powered craft within the next decade, and it will be going to see 3 of Jupiter's moons, It will be powered by ion engines, which will give it enough thrust to get in and out of the moons orbits, it will be the first time that one craft will be built to examine 3 moons.