Enrico Fermi, father of the nuclear age – History of physics (opens in new tab)

(economist.com)

22 pointsendisukaj8y ago6 comments

6 comments

6 comments · 1 top-level

rmason8y ago· 5 in thread

I toured the Enrico Fermi nuclear plant as a kid. Learned a lot about the man. They also tried very hard to sell us on a nuclear powered future.

They even talked about nuclear powered cars. When it came time for questions I said what would happen with a nuclear powered car in case of a traffic accident? The spokesman said that was a stupid question and refused to answer it.

On the ride back to school the teacher reassured me that it was a valid question and that he was wrong to refuse to answer it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enrico_Fermi_Nuclear_Generatin...

If nuclear powered cars seem like a fanciful idea they really were seriously considered in the fifties and sixties. Here's information about a Ford prototype.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Nucleon

mlevental8y ago

> The spokesman said that was a stupid question and refused to answer it.

I don't understand why people do this: you really expect us to believe an adult spokesperson (someone whose job is it to be personable and charming) called a kid stupid and flat out refused to answer a question? more likely he had some reason it was an unfounded question and maybe was evasive but there's no way the word "stupid" (or any other disparaging word) nor "refuse" was actually uttered

pmoriarty8y ago

The nuclear car idea reminds me of Edward Teller advocacy of using nuclear bombs to excavate a harbor in Alaska, "in the shape of a polar bear, if required".[1][2]

[1] - http://arcticcircle.uconn.edu/VirtualClassroom/Chariot/vande...

[2] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Chariot

rmason8y ago

Or Elon Musk's idea to use nuclear explosions over the poles to change the climate on Mars and make it more inhabitable.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/09/11/us/elon-musk-mars-nuclear-bomb...

expertentipp8y ago

It’s the early stage zealotry which rushes to apply new powerful solution to every existng problem in the world (see the radium element, from more recent reactjs/angularjs, etc).

scoggs8y ago

I think that type of answer from him is worse than explaining the possibility of the shielding breaking or leaking from the accident which could harm people who aren't even involved in the accident. That's a scary prospect which probably goes far enough to invalidate nuclear cars all together, I'd imagine.

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