Word: reactors
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...missile, the efficiency of the engine is limited by the quality of its fuel. And as chemically fueled engines approach peak efficiency, the fuel they require becomes increasingly difficult to manage. But a nuclear rocket-in which hard-to-handle hydrogen will be heated by an atomic reactor-would offer ample recompense for its built-in problems. Its thrust, Seaborg explained, would be far greater than that available from any combination of chemical fuels; it would open the way to space voyages impossible with any other missile...
...Rover (nuclear rocket) program, Seaborg said, has already tested a ground-bound model. Kiwi-A. It has demonstrated that a nuclear reactor can heat a flow of high-pressure gaseous hydrogen to proper operating temperature and can keep in operation as long as needed in a space vehicle. The more advanced Kiwi-B. which will be tested soon in Nevada, will use liquid hydrogen for its propellant...
...March 1961, General Electric proposed to initiate early flight testing of a nuclear-propulsion system through the use of a test reactor mounted on a B52 aircraft. The reactor to be tested in flight is one designed for ground test and would require extensive modification, with resultant diversion of energy and skill, at considerable cost to the reactor development program. The purpose was to demonstrate reactor performance. However, the thrust generated by the reactor would be inadequate to sustain flight, and the proposal would contribute little toward the development of a fully nuclear-powered aircraft. In summary...
...direct-cycle system, designed by General Electric, is cumbersome and requires excessively heavy shielding as protection from radiation. The air passing through the reactor picks up a fraction of the fission products and exhausts it to the atmosphere as fallout during takeoff, landing and normal flight. As a result, it is unlikely that the aircraft could be operated from normal commercial or military airfields...
Another plan pertains to the N.Y. Central tracks that cut through the city near M.I.T., a right of way which would appear to offer one of the least disruptive, but perhaps most effective routes. Considerable opposition here has and will probably continue to come from M.I.T., whose nuclear reactor would lie in the path of the road. This route would also split off some of the new land that Tech has been acquiring and developing in the area...