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am I an idiot?

I

IBdaMac

Senior member
I would consider myself a fairly intelligent person, based on academic performance and logical reasoning.

I may be wrong though....

This seems MORE than practical, logical, and feasible.

http://www.howstuffworks.com/ncar.htm

I know that it has to be fake....especially enlight of April Fools and the fact that I can't find anything anywhere else about it. It also points you to an april fools page (not saying that article was fake, but explaining the history of april fools). The car looks like a model as well.

I know I'm stupid for saying this, but I believe this is more than possible and should be implimented. This is an absolute brilliant idea. They layed out all of the security flaws and addressed them as well. I am really impressed with howstuffworks.com's job on this hoax.

If this actually is real.....YEY!!

Anyone want to call me an idiot or agree with me?
 
It's fake. Check the last page: "How Flux Capacitors Work."

edit: Yes, you are an idiot. There are too many questions involved to release nuclear material to the general public.
 
Availability
The nCar is scheduled for delivery in the 2005 model year. However, there is one peculiar thing about the nCar. Because of requirements imposed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, as well as safety issues during the fuel-loading process on the assembly line, the car will be available for shipment on only one day of the year: April 1. Dealers take pre-orders up to a year in advance of this date, for delivery to customers on April 1.
Click to expand...

Yes it's fake.
 
I really do know it's fake....but what I want to know is why this would seem impratical in any way shape or form...

these don't seem any more outrageous than hydrogen fuel cells, and they're definitely a reality

edit: if you read the article, it explains why the form of U235 they are using is basically useless for terrorism (which is true, I read about the pellets elsewhere)...as well as enclosed in basically an indestructable shield.
 
How are you going to stop the radiation? You generally need a lot of mass to guarantee that there will be no release in case of a collision. A lot more than they're talking about.
 
I think 8 inches of lead is enough to stop the radiation from only a pound of U235

edit: Think about it...hydrogen fuel cell cars....they're possible, and very near our future. GM has developed a "skateboard" concept that has Compressed hydrogen enclosed in titanium in the absolute middle of the car. They have the same safety concerns with collisions as a car with U235 in it...it's not explosive when in a collision, it just might leak out....(wich with 6 inches of Titanium and 8 inches of lead....penetrating due to collision at even 200mph is virtually impossible.).....I just think this is not beyond possible...does ANYONE IN THE WORLD AGREE????
 
Originally posted by: IBdaMac
I think 8 inches of lead is enough to stop the radiation from only a pound of U235

edit: Think about it...hydrogen fuel cell cars....they're possible, and very near our future. GM has developed a "skateboard" concept that has Compressed hydrogen enclosed in titanium in the absolute middle of the car. They have the same safety concerns with collisions as a car with U235 in it...it's not explosive when in a collision, it just might leak out....(wich with 6 inches of Titanium and 8 inches of lead....penetrating due to collision at even 200mph is virtually impossible.).....I just think this is not beyond possible...does ANYONE IN THE WORLD AGREE????
Click to expand...

I agree that it's a good idea, but we can't make nuclear reactors powerful enough to do that small enough to fit into a car yet. Give it another 10-20 years or more
 
that's the thing....that's not true because like they said, one pound of these U235 pellets will generate the same amount of heat over 20 years as 1 million gallons of gas....not EVERYTHING in that article was bogus.

Creating a steam - turbine powered mini nuclear reactor would generate a phenominal amount of power.
 
yo shtupid, whattcha gonna do once the reactor hasn't got any power left? throw it in the recycle bin? And the front looks like a Porsche you shtupid.
 
You're a moron to have to ask this question. Every 'fact' which they state on their first page was pretty close to being the opposite of what is true. Look at what they say is the cause of global warming and who controls the oil and burns the most gas...
Damn you must be stupid.
Also, the pic of the concept car is clearly a toy car.
It only get more obvious after that.
If you have to ask, you're a goddamn moron.

edit: by the way a nuclear reactor would do really well in a head on collision!
 
again, I know it's fake....please learn how to read

I'm looking for an intelligent person to give me a highly technical reason on why this is not feasible...and whether there is any way we could possibly see this in the future.

A mini nuclear reactor of that design is possible, especially with the amount of wind involved with a moving vehicle. Refueling the water is necessary but there would be emergency cooling devices.

Think about Nanotechnology....we will start seeing that within a decade....if that is possible, anything is possible...I don't care what you say. (and yes it is possible)--the eradication of famine, consumption of fossil fuels, environmental reconstruction and preservation, revolutionary health benefits: cancer and aids destroyed, organ reconstrucion, and even reverse aging. Diamonds, water, food and oil if necessary can be recreated at the molecular level. (if you haven't read about it, please do...it's the most amazing technology I've ever seen)

Experts say that the more advanced applications of nanotechnology aren't for another 50-100 years. Even so, that means I'll be around to see a lot of it. IBM already was able to allign individual atoms to spell out "IBM" with like 30 hydrogen atoms or something. If you can manipulate individual atom's positions, then you are god (even create cells atom by atom).

Every aspect of our lives will be changed in so many ways...

if you can't believe a mini nuclear reactor is possible, then you are on some serious crack

(sorry for the tangent)

edit: and every "fact" that I claim is true is the same ones I have researched elsewhere to confirm.
 
Originally posted by: Flyermax2k3
You mean, your car doesn't have a nuclear reactor under the hood?
Click to expand...

i drive a grand am, i think MY car has 2 rabbits, one carrot, and a very misshapen running cage. i have yet to look and find out, it would break my heart to have to shoot them for sucking so bad and moving my car around.
 
Originally posted by: IBdaMac
again, I know it's fake....please learn how to read

I'm looking for an intelligent person to give me a highly technical reason on why this is not feasible...and whether there is any way we could possibly see this in the future.

A mini nuclear reactor of that design is possible, especially with the amount of wind involved with a moving vehicle. Refueling the water is necessary but there would be emergency cooling devices. if you can't believe a mini nuclear reactor is possible, then you are on some serious crack

(sorry for the tangent)

edit: and every "fact" that I claim is true is the same ones I have researched elsewhere to confirm.
Click to expand...

Issue #1: yes a nuclear reactor that small is possible, but the power output would not be enough to run the car. Moving 2000-4000 pounds at 75mph isn't exactly accomplished with a gerbil on a wheel.

Issue #2: The oil companies won't let this happen anytime soon. They will fight tooth and nail for as long as possible, and try to bury it with a massive FUD campaign (it won't be hard for them either, they'll just use the fact that you're driving around with nuclear material to scare off 75% of the potential buyers which brings me to my third point)

Issue #3: Public opinion. Informed people know that it could be made safely, but the majority of the population is ignorant on the subject. With such high profile history like chernobyl and hiroshima, plus the stories going on about radiation poisioning, getting the public to embrace this will be extremely difficult. Without the public buying it, it won't be profitable and will go out of business.
 
Why not such a car?
1. A nuclear reactor needs a certain mass of Uranium to function. No way to run a reactor with half a pound of uranium - not to create a significant amount of power.
2. There are radiations, that will later affect the metal in the car (the radiation shield and so on)
3. You need a BIG radiation shield.
4. A nuclear power plant produces nothing useful BUT HEAT. So you will have a very hot reactor core, and nothing else. To transform that heat in power, the submarines and air carriers use steam. This way, one uses a hot source (the reactor) and a cold source (the water) to create work (power multiplied by time). Now what car you could have capable to cool such a reactor? And how much steam you have to carry in your car for the transformation of nuclear heat in power? Usually the pressure in the primary (and secondary - guess what - there is a primary and secondary steam circuit) heat circuit is pretty high. And any crack in the primary steam reactor is capable of polluting the environment with radioactive waste.
5. For all the paranoids out there, one could buy 10 or 20 cars and cut open their engines. You will end with enough uranium to create a small nuke.
6. Can you imagine a car cimitery where the radiation will be equal to that in Chernobyl, by example?
7. A frontal crash between two such cars will produce radiation hazard, so everyone in a radius of 30 miles will have to be evacuated.

If you need more reasoning, send me a message.
(for the moment, I suppose the main reason against this is the sheer mass needed for a vehicle)

Calin

EDIT1:
I just RTFA and found out about the pebble reactor. So, the questions are:
How will you shut down such a reactor? If you can't, your car will just be hot all the time. Considering the current efficiency of the steam engines, you will output heat at some rapid rate - for a supposed car with 200 kW engine (271 KW) you will output three times that heat into the environment. Do you have a electric heater? It probably has a power of 2 kW. Your car will output 300 times that. Can you say red hot?
You will need a high flow of air to cool that beast. As is necessary a 50 cfm fan to cool a 100W processor, you will need a small tempest to cool your car.
Assume you could shut that reactor down when not in use (by using some kind of moderator), when running you will still have a 1 000 Celsius degree hot reactor in the car, with several pounds of 1 000 Celsius hot steam at a pressure of tens of atmospheres. In case of a small accident that will crack the heat pipes, you are toasted (or maybe boiled).
You can't use tap water. All the minerals in the water will remain inside the pipes, finally clogging them. Also reducing the power output of the engine. So, you'll most probably have to use distilled water (which is cheaper than gasoline).

EDIT2:
How much will weigh the encasing? I'll let you guess. Can you put that in a sport car? Guess again.
If the car power is 35 kW, then will you drive a car that is having only 50 HP? Guess not, considering the weight of all the systems.
If the encasing is complete, how will you have steam out of it? If only from the outsides, then you will have a huge mass of lead and titanium at 1 000 C in your car. What temperature is needed to molt lead? Yes, you're right. Molten lead.
The pebbles will maybe not contain enough uranium (not concentrate enough) to create a critical mass. However, cutting the titanium encasing is just time consuming, and not extremely difficult. However, it should be much easier to concentrate the uranium in the pebbles than to produce it from ground up (mining operations). Even so, it could be used for a radiation atack (not a nuclear one).


 
Originally posted by: Calin
Why not such a car?
1. A nuclear reactor needs a certain mass of Uranium to function. No way to run a reactor with half a pound of uranium - not to create a significant amount of power.
2. There are radiations, that will later affect the metal in the car (the radiation shield and so on)
3. You need a BIG radiation shield.
4. A nuclear power plant produces nothing useful BUT HEAT. So you will have a very hot reactor core, and nothing else. To transform that heat in power, the submarines and air carriers use steam. This way, one uses a hot source (the reactor) and a cold source (the water) to create work (power multiplied by time). Now what car you could have capable to cool such a reactor? And how much steam you have to carry in your car for the transformation of nuclear heat in power? Usually the pressure in the primary (and secondary - guess what - there is a primary and secondary steam circuit) heat circuit is pretty high. And any crack in the primary steam reactor is capable of polluting the environment with radioactive waste.
5. For all the paranoids out there, one could buy 10 or 20 cars and cut open their engines. You will end with enough uranium to create a small nuke.
6. Can you imagine a car cimitery where the radiation will be equal to that in Chernobyl, by example?
7. A frontal crash between two such cars will produce radiation hazard, so everyone in a radius of 30 miles will have to be evacuated.

If you need more reasoning, send me a message.
(for the moment, I suppose the main reason against this is the sheer mass needed for a vehicle)

Calin

I just RTFA and found out about the pebble reactor. So, the questions are:
How will you shut down such a reactor? If you can't, your car will just be hot all the time. Considering the current efficiency of the steam engines, you will output heat at some rapid rate - for a supposed car with 200 kW engine (271 KW) you will output three times that heat into the environment. Do you have a electric heater? It probably has a power of 2 kW. Your car will output 300 times that. Can you say red hot?
You will need a high flow of air to cool that beast. As is necessary a 50 cfm fan to cool a 100W processor, you will need a small tempest to cool your car.
Assume you could shut that reactor down when not in use (by using some kind of moderator), when running you will still have a 1 000 Celsius degree hot reactor in the car, with several pounds of 1 000 Celsius hot steam at a pressure of tens of atmospheres. In case of a small accident that will crack the heat pipes, you are toasted (or maybe boiled).
You can't use tap water. All the minerals in the water will remain inside the pipes, finally clogging them. Also reducing the power output of the engine. So, you'll most probably have to use distilled water (which is cheaper than gasoline).
Click to expand...

Here's another (reason this guy's an idiot):

The appropriately sized lead shield would weigh about 3tons and the reactor couldn't generate 1/1000000th of the torque necessary to get that in motion.

If this actually is real.....YEY!!
Click to expand...

Right......
 
Here's another (reason this guy's an idiot):

The appropriately sized lead shield would weigh about 3tons and the reactor couldn't generate 1/1000000th of the torque necessary to get that in motion.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the weight computation, AIWGuru. It will indeed be a more than two feet (>70 cm) diameter block of solid metal for the "core". One cubic meter of lead is about 13 tons, so I assume 3 tons is a bit of understatement. Add to that the steam pipes, and the engine itself (be it a turbine or with pistons). Oh, and the heat exchangers also (I assume they will be needed). And the heat shields. You will end up with something like a Sherman.

Calin
 
I guess this car will be hard to stole - you will need a crane and trailer to take it 😀
Off course, the easy way to stole such a car will be to steal it together with the owner.

Calin
 
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