Cadillac as a design exercise to show what a vehicle capable of. The cadillac world thorium fueled concept car theoretically powered by an onboard nuclear reactor that uses thorium as its fuel. Ford motor company produced its futuristic nucleon design study car in 1958 not long after pittsburgh s residents began receiving electricity from the world s first full scale nuclear power plant.
From cars to comic books few aspects of the american landscape were untouched by the heady promises of the atomic age. Ford the design called for a power capsule located in the rear of the car charging stations replacing. In the 1950s perhaps the height of the so called atomic age ford developed a concept car called the ford nucleon this nuclear powered automobile was designed according to ford based on the assumption that future nuclear reactors would be smaller safer lighter and more portable source.
Many believed it would replace oil and deliver clean power. In the 1950s and 1960s there was huge hype around nuclear energy. In 1958 ford came up with a nuclear powered concept the nucleon car that would be powered by a nuclear reactor in the trunk.
Despite the shielding problem through the late 1940s and early 1950s debate continued around the possibility of nuclear powered cars. A later court case found that he was a fraud and there was no nuclear powered car. The car did not show and wilson claimed that it had been sabotaged.
While not all fuel used in nuclear reactors can be immediately used in a nuclear bomb even uranium that s not highly enriched could be used in a dirty bomb or. Having radioactive material readily available is a security and public health concern. When someone mentions a nuclear powered car the danger of radioactivity likely comes to mind.
Rather the vehicle was to be powered by a small nuclear reactor in the rear of the vehicle based on the assumption that. The design did not include an internal combustion engine. The ford nucleon is a concept car developed by ford in 1957 designed as a future nuclear powered car one of a handful of such designs during the 1950s and 60s the concept was only demonstrated as a scale model.
