Nuclear-powered passenger aircrafts; revival of an idea
December 4, 2008
During the research project on the national basis, British scientists are studying different possibilities of protecting the environment from the negative consequences of an air transport.
They have analyzed the possibility to develop nuclear-powered engines for passenger aircrafts and have gained positive results out of this project so far. They suggested to the government to consider responsibly about this possibility and start to invest in the development of nuclear-powered passenger airplanes.
The director of the project, airplane engineer and professor Ian Poll is sure that exploitation of nuclear power sources in aviation is completely realistic idea. His opinion is, that nuclear-powered engines should replace conventional fossil oil powered jet engines till the middle of this century.
During the “cold war”, America and Russia had already been developing nuclear-powered aircraft for military purposes.
Using of nuclear power in aviation would mean extremely long distances without refueling and minimal impact to environment. One of the most evidential disadvantages that concern ecologists and people are critical failures, which could cause airplane crash and consequently nuclear pollution. Scientists mentioned the possibility that nuclear reactors on board could be equipped with automatic and auxiliary parachutes and launching system that might be able to launch the reactor to safer area if necessary.
