On 5/13/2021 4:00 PM, Scott Lurndal wrote:
knuttle writes:
On 5/13/2021 12:13 PM, Scott Lurndal wrote:
knuttle writes:

As you sit in the gas line or are looking for a station with gas, DON"T
you wish your car was powered by on of the small nuclear reactor like
those they have use to power satellites for decades?

Hm.. There's only one US nuclear reactor currently in orbit. SNAP-10A.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SNAP-10A

The russians had a reactor that deorbited unexpectedly and contaminated
parts of northern Canada in 1977.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US-A

The last two Mars rovers have had Pu-powered RTG's - radioisotope thermal
generators, which don't use fission, but rather are powered by the
heat generated as the Pu decays into daughter products. On the downside,
the power is limited to sub 1kw, which won't run a car for very long.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radioi...tric_generator

Satellites use solar panels.

DARPA is working with Lockmart on the Draco project to test a
new reactor design in space for military satellites - it will use
HALEU (High-Assay, Low-Enriched Uranium) rather than the HEU
(Highly-enriched Uranium) in the Draco test reactor.

"The demo system won't operate in an orbit where it has
any - even a remote - chance of coming back to Earth."

Might as well wish for a car powered by a Mr. Fusion device.

This research could have been done decades ago using the Trillions of
dollars that have been spent to kill nuclear energy. The whole
Manhattan project took about 5 years. Think what could have been done
in those 70 years with those trillions of dollars. What a missed
opportunity.

One may look back with lament, or look forward with hope.

What "trillions" were spent to kill nuclear energy?

Start with all of the anti nuclear ads that have been run in the last 70
year. What bout all of the groups that spent money to kill nuclear
energy. What about ........................... The list goes on and on.