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.
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.
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]
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).
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.
> 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
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[ 2.7 ms ] story [ 20.7 ms ] threadThey 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
[1] - http://arcticcircle.uconn.edu/VirtualClassroom/Chariot/vande...
[2] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Chariot
http://www.cnn.com/2015/09/11/us/elon-musk-mars-nuclear-bomb...
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