nuclear-news

The News That Matters about the Nuclear Industry Fukushima Chernobyl Mayak Three Mile Island Atomic Testing Radiation Isotope

USA Pentagon wants to fly small nuclear reactors in transport jets – Gee, I hope they dont crash

The Pentagon Wants a Nuclear Reactor That Fits in a Transport Jet, Foxtrot Alpha , Kyle Mizokami  30 Jan 19, The Department of Defense wants a portable nuclear reactor the size of a main battle tank that’s capable of being lifted to overseas hot spots. The reactor would provide megawatts of power for U.S. forces, providing juice for everything from Xboxes to directed energy weapons. A mobile reactor would also make the military less reliant on diesel fuel for electrical generators, which in some cases must be sent along dangerous resupply lines.

According to the Federal Business Opportunities website, the Department of Defense’s Strategic Capabilities Office has officially put out a request for information for a “Small Mobile Nuclear Reactor.”………

Despite more than seventy years of development, portable or even semi-portable nuclear reactors have not achieved the kind of success dreamed of early in the Nuclear Age. Between 1964 and 1972 a nuclear reactor, PM-3A, provided 1.8 megawatts of power to the U.S. research station at McMurdo Station, Antarctica. Unfortunately the reactor was also seriously buggy, malfunctioning 438 times over its operational lifespan resulting in a reliability rate of just 72 percent. It was also implicated in a spike in cancer-related deaths.

The NB-36 bomber was a proposed nuclear-powered heavy strategic bomber that used the R-1 nuclear power plant for propulsion, but concerns about environmental damage should the plane crash shelved the nuclear-powered aircraft concept indefinitely. …….https://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/the-pentagon-wants-a-nuclear-reactor-that-fits-in-a-tra-1832135363

January 31, 2019 - Posted by | safety, weapons and war

No comments yet.

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

« Previous | Next »