Human beings have always wanted to use existing resources to research and cash vehicles. Due to technical limitations, the original nuclear reactor was quite large. Therefore, the first attempt to use nuclear energy naturally fell on the largest carrier: the ship. The US CVN-65 Enterprise is the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier in human history, .
Nuclear Power Enterprise has strong endurance. If the "fuel" is replaced, it can sail for 10 consecutive years at rated power for 10 years. Of course, this is just a theoretical number.
In the case of Enterprise No. , the benefits of using nuclear energy are perfectly demonstrated, simply put, high power and long battery life. As we all know, an airplane is a fuel-consuming means of transportation. The longest flight time in human history is the Boeing 777-200LR, which has only 17 hours of continuous flight time, which is not impressive compared to other means of transportation. Many people may think that since the aircraft consumes so much fuel and the nuclear energy has such strong endurance, why not combine the two? There is a nuclear-powered aircraft , and a nuclear-powered rocket has a concept, but there has been no experiments.
During the Cold War , this type of aircraft was designed in the United States and the Soviet Union. In the United States, the most famous projects are NEPA/ANP and Pluto. NEPA/AN was launched in 1946 and completed in 1951. Pluto was designed and constructed from 1957 to 1964. The purpose of these projects is to build a nuclear engine to promote the aircraft to operate properly without preserving all normal functions.
In 1955, the first nuclear-powered aircraft of the United States, NB-36H, flew. A total of 47 flights were conducted, with a total duration of more than 200 hours. It turned out that the plane left a radioactive mark in the air and was suspended in the air for a long time. However, the more serious problem is how to protect crew members from radiation. Despite all the measures that could be taken at the time, the crew was still subjected to radiation exceeding the human tolerated limit.
And in the 1950s and 1960s, the Soviet Union conducted more than 30 test flights of nuclear-powered aircraft. It was improved by the Soviet Union on . The nuclear reactor was loaded in a bullet casing, and the nuclear radiation was shielded from with lead and plastic partitions around it. Later, the Soviet Union conducted further experiments, namely the 199 aircraft, which was planned to fly for the first time in 1965, but later encountered technical problems and the project was terminated.
So what were the problems encountered by the United States and the Soviet Union at that time? Why are no one working on nuclear-powered aircraft now?
People analyze it from several aspects:
First of all, the biggest problem is safety issues. Everyone can see various safety accidents of aircraft every day. If a nuclear-powered aircraft crashes and causes nuclear leakage, in addition to the personnel on the aircraft, it will cause unpredictable nuclear pollution to the ground. No matter how safe a plane is, it cannot guarantee that it will never crash.
is based on safety technical issues. Everyone knows that even the nuclear facilities on the ground will encounter various accidents and cause nuclear leakage. Not to mention some technical issues such as radiation, cooling, etc. in such a small space as an aircraft. It may be difficult to accomplish these technical problems in the small cabin environment.
Aviation’s century-long development has made significant contributions to mankind. Current aircraft technology has reached a very high level, and is stable in terms of economy and safety. Therefore, no company will rashly build nuclear-powered aircraft, unless nuclear power has better technical solutions, with the development of clean energy, it will tend toward new energy aviation technology in the future. The Rockets are the same. Is it difficult to miniaturize the nuclear reactor? In 2008, American teenager Tyler Wilson successfully built a nuclear fusion reactor in his garage, becoming the youngest person in the world to realize nuclear fusion . Although his reactor, , cannot generate electricity, this directly proves that it is not as difficult to make a nuclear reactor small. In the latest bid by the U.S. military, air-cooled power generation can reach 10 megawatts (MW) and mobile nuclear power plants weighing less than 40 tons are expected to replace diesel power generation machines in the near future. Nuclear reactor miniaturization technology has proven to be mature.
In addition to former Soviet scientists, Spanish designers are also very busy. It is said that the first nuclear-powered passenger aircraft has been designed by Spanish designer Oscar Verma. The aircraft is designed to carry 250 passengers and has a speed of Mach 3. It is said that an nuclear fuel can stay in the air for several months and can never land. But the plane is still in the blueprint and may never be built.
