Designers predicted that the Nucleon could travel 5,000 miles before refueling. The Nucleon would have been powered by a small reactor in the rear, similar in design to how nuclear submarines work, employing what is basically a smaller version of a full-size nuclear reactor. ![]() A model of the Nucleon was built by Ford designers in 1958 during the height of the atomic car craze. Arbel never had the chance to develop their glowing car, the French government wasn't wild about the idea and the company quickly disappeared in 1959 under a mountain of debt.ĭespite looking like a futuristic muscle pickup with a superhero name, theįord Nucleon never made it to a full-size concept. Among the space-age features on the Symétric were swiveling captains seats and glow-in-the-dark phosphorescent bumpers. The nuclear fuel-heating source would only need to be switched out every five years. Generator that used a thermal-electric effect to drive a motor with radioactive waste. The Arbel Symétric came from a post-war research and development company interested in creative vehicles that saved on fuel.Ī brochure from the era highlights the "Genestatom," a 40-kW nuclear World War II was tough on Europe, and even long after the bombers were grounded, there was a push in Europe to do more with less. Take a trip back in time to when creativity was out matched only by naïveté by checking out these nuclear-powered car concepts from automakers likeįord and Studebaker-Packard. Our love affair with nuclear energy has waned considerably since the catastrophes at Chernobyl, Three Mile Island and, most recently, Lasers and Thorium salts have been suggested – it's amusing to think that there was a time when these cars were seriously considered the future of transportation. Analyses of the atomic car concept at the time determined that a 50-ton lead barrier would be necessary to prevent exposure.Īlthough hope is still alive for nuclear-powered cars – engines powered by Additionally, many of the designers assumed a lightweight shielding material or even forcefields would eventually be invented (they still haven't) to protect passengers from harmful radiation. Doing so would mean every fender-bender could result in a minor nuclear holocaust. For starters, the powerplant would be too small to attain a reaction unless the car contained weapons-grade atomic materials. There were just too many problems with the realities of nuclear power. ![]() Combining these vehicles with the new interstate system presented amazing potential for American mobility.īut the fantasy soon faded. ![]() Fueled by a consistent reaction, these cars would theoretically produce no harmful byproducts and rarely need to refuel. The development of nuclear-powered submarines and ships during the 1940s and 50s ledĬar designers to begin conceptualizing atomic vehicles. ![]() In Europe, it offered the then-limping continent a cheap, inexhaustible supply of power after years of rationing and infrastructure damage brought on by two World Wars. Nuclear power was supposed to lead to a limitless consumer culture, a world of flying cars and autonomous kitchens all powered by clean energy.
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