Nuclear Powered Automobiles?

[Jason]

Actually wood gas combined with fuel cell technology is a viable way to reduce dependency on fossil fuels and greenhouse gas emissions. Considering that it can be made from a broad variety of materials, some of which have little use - such as rice husks, and it produces Biochar which can be used as a fertilizer and for carbon sequestration it is both a renewable fuel source and a way to reduce carbon already in the atmosphere.

It's a modern development of an old idea into a high technology synthesis of several modern developments and advancements in technology. Hardly something to be dismissed out of hand on the false assumption that it is the same technology used in WWII to power one million or more vehicles.

[Schneibster]

Actually wood gas combined with fuel cell technology is a viable way to reduce dependency on fossil fuels and greenhouse gas emissions. Considering that it can be made from a broad variety of materials, some of which have little use - such as rice husks, and it produces Biochar which can be used as a fertilizer and for carbon sequestration it is both a renewable fuel source and a way to reduce carbon already in the atmosphere.

It's a modern development of an old idea into a high technology synthesis of several modern developments and advancements in technology. Hardly something to be dismissed out of hand on the false assumption that it is the same technology used in WWII to power one million or more vehicles.

Perhaps if there were a link.

[Jason]

Wikipedia or Google are good places to start.

Good keywords are Wood Gasifier, Fuel Cells, Biochar, Carbon Sequestration, etc.

[Jason]

Good place to start to get the basic concept:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gasification

[Coito ergo sum]

http://www.txchnologist.com/2011/the-th ... clear-cars

Thorium lasers: The thoroughly plausible idea for nuclear cars

[Coito ergo sum]

BACK TO THE FUTURE: PRESS GARBLES STORY ABOUT ‘NUCLEAR POWERED CARS’
Wednesday, March 9th, 2011
March 9, 2011
Nuclear Townhall
From the Editors

The early days of nuclear power were filled with wild promises of the coming age – nuclear powered rocket ships, nuclear powered colonies on the moon and – most memorably – “electricity too cheap to meter.” Many of these predictions did more harm than good and are now thrown back in the face of people who have more practical ambitions.

Now that nuclear power is making a comeback, the same syndrome may be taking shape again. Witness the story on Zigwheels this week about “Nuclear powered cars.”

“Scientists have discovered a new form of uranium that could lead to a nuclear power plant small enough to fit in your car and eventually even power it,” the story begins breathlessly. “Scientists from the Los Alamos National Laboratory have created a long-sought molecule known as uranium nitride. Besides offering cheaper and safer nuclear fuel, the new molecule could extract more energy from fossil fuels, making cars more fuel-efficient, and could also lead to cheaper drugs.”

Whoa, wait a minute. What are we talking about here? Uranium nitride is a compound of uranium and nitrogen that has several advantages over uranium dioxide, which is the common way in which uranium is held in fuel rods. The thermal conductivity if uranium nitride is four-to-eight times as high as uranium oxide, which means fuel rods can operate at higher temperatures and last longer.

But a nuclear reactor in your car? Well it turns out what the scientists are telling reporter Anshika Ajmera is that uranium nitride can also be used as a catalyst in auto engines. “Uranium nitride rips the hydrogen atoms off a carbon atom which is a similar process that happens every day in car engines. Unfortunately a lot of energy in those bonds is lost as heat. But for uranium nitride to become commercially viable, it would have to knock one hydrogen atom after another and not destroy itself in the process. The scientists would, in other words, have to turn uranium nitride into a catalyst.

Sounds good. But having a uranium catalyst in your automobile engine is not the same as having a nuclear reactor. It might be possible to mount a small reactor in an automobile, but it would be to run a “steam car” of the kind that flourished around 1900. Coal-powered steam cars faded because they took 45 minutes to warm up. A pocked-sized reactor – which could run all the time – would overcome that problem. Still, such a devise is not likely.

The Nuclear Renaissance will probably do much better this time around if the press can learn a little physics and not exaggerate

http://www.nucleartownhall.com/blog/tag ... ered-cars/

What? The press gets it wrong on scientific issues? Perish the thought...

[Tyrannical]

http://depletedcranium.com/abc-news-ram ... m-nitride/

To begin with, uranium nitride is in no way “newly discovered.” There are in fact several forms of uranium nitride (Uranium mononitride, uranium dinitride and others.) It has been used for some time to power research reactors, primarily in the form of uranium mononitride. It has also been proposed as the fuel for several reactor concepts including small generation-IV reactors.

It should be noted that nitride fuel does not, in and of itself make it possible to make reactors of a small size, such as one small enough to fit inside and power a family car. In fact, it is quite possible to build a reactor of such a small size, but it wouldn’t be a viable way of powering a car. Such a small reactor would require expensive fuel of a fairly high enrichment to achieve critical mass. It would also need substantial shielding, making it very heavy for a road vehicle. Finally, cooling such a reactor and providing for the kind of rapid start-ups and shut-downs of a family car would be at best, an engineering challenge. While such small reactors have been built before, it would not make for a good means of propelling a car.

If nitride were used in such an application it probably would not be in an automobile engine. Car engines do break apart carbon and hydrogen (and oxidize them in the process), but that’s unlikely to benefit from a catalyst of the type uranium nitride could be used as, and while this does mean “energy is lost as heat,” in a car engine that’s a good thing, because it’s that heat that powers the engine, so again, I’m not sure what the author is really getting at.

[Mysturji]

Pipe dream, I hope.
I don't like the idea of nuclear powered cars running around. What happens when there is pile-up on the motorway or one gets hit by a train at a level crossing?

Probably would be safer than with 20 gallons of gasoline in the back...

Agreed.
At least that fire wouldn't take 20,000 years to go out.

[FBM]

Nuke-u-lur car? You know some redneck would take it apart just to see what's inside.

[Coito ergo sum]

Nuke-u-lur car? You know some redneck would take it apart just to see what's inside.

It's such an irritant that Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter and George Bush all say "nukular." Dummies.

[FBM]

They are all Southern hick rednecks.

[Coito ergo sum]

Don't knock rednecks....

[FBM]

Don't knock rednecks....

I'd knock her...up.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Don't knock rednecks....

*waves at Bella*

[Svartalf]

Actually wood gas combined with fuel cell technology is a viable way to reduce dependency on fossil fuels and greenhouse gas emissions. Considering that it can be made from a broad variety of materials, some of which have little use - such as rice husks, and it produces Biochar which can be used as a fertilizer and for carbon sequestration it is both a renewable fuel source and a way to reduce carbon already in the atmosphere.

It's a modern development of an old idea into a high technology synthesis of several modern developments and advancements in technology. Hardly something to be dismissed out of hand on the false assumption that it is the same technology used in WWII to power one million or more vehicles.

Wood gas... Like the gazognes they used during WWII to compensate the oil penury?