Would you drive a nuclear powered car if it was deemed safe?

Question

Would you drive a nuclear powered car if it was deemed safe?

Answer 1

Deemed safe by who?  The government?  Heck, the government can't even deem some of the drugs on the market as safe until it's too late for some.  I'd have to say I would not drive a nuclear powered car just because it was deemed safe by the government.  Besides, there are too many idiots on the roads these days that could really test the safety of these cars and put others and society at risk with environmental contamination.

Answer 2

i don't believe there is anyway to make a nuclear powered car safe... the shielding required to protect you would make the car weight a ton...

so if you were TOLD it was safe.. you were being lied to...

in short .. NO

Answer 3

That's like asking if you would ride a tiger if it were deemed safe.

Answer 4

In a flash!

(but we would likely be better to build nuclear generating stations and drive electric cars)

Answer 5

sure...I have a nuclear powered smoke alarm in my house

Answer 6

Yes-- but the shielding would make the car very heavy! -- the nuclear power industry in the West has been very very safe.

Virtually zero deaths since its conception --- France gets about 70% of its electric power from nuclear generation-- while we get about 25% --

It has ZERO CO2 emissions. Remember that hundreds of people have died in the coal mining industry over the last 100 years.

Answer 7

Yes.

Answer 8

I will tolerate an ionizing device like a smoke alarm because it has zero ability to distribute any volume of radioactive material into the environment.

But to provide motor power we would need more nuclear material, and we would be exposing it to the risks of auto accidents. Sorry, no sale here.

If we have a nuclear power plant providing electricity to power electric cars, I would consider the risk adequately reduced as long as I stay away from Chernobyl.

Answer 9

and if was deemed affordable.

Answer 10

no and I can't believe that obama would even suggest such a thing. look at the devistation and trouble that nuclear power has gotten us into in the past. we have other sources and power besides oil or NUCLEAR POWER. the unfortunate part is that congress refuses to deem america ready to access them.

Answer 11

Sure.

Although it would probably be very expensive.

Answer 12

A friend of mine, an engineer at Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd, actually worked out a design for a nuclear-powered car (engineers and alcohol can lead to some very strange things).  Safety wasn't an issue.  The problem was figuring out how to build a car that could carry the required 15 feet of reinforced concrete between the reactor core and the passenger compartment.

Answer 13

Sure, and it wouldn't have to have much shielding either, depending on what you mean by nuclear powered.   I read once in Scientific America or some such magazine of how some element with a 30 year half life emits a cascade of alpha particles (that will heat air, but cannot pass through cardboard) when bombarded with x rays.   It produces 10X as much power as it uses to run the x-rays.   Saab or Mercedes (slow acceleration time so it didn't sell well) once made a gas turbine vehicle that used gasoline to heat the air instead of a radio active element, but it would have the same effect.    30 years without paying for gas would be fine with me.