Would it be feasible to make a nuclear-powered car?

[padanarm]

In the Fifties it was preducited that in the future we would have robots to do all the work, would fly around with jetpacks and drive nuclear-powered cars.

Would it be feasible to make a nuclear reactor small enough to power a car?

[padanarm]

Ok then, would it be feasible to make a nuclear train?

[R1Geezer]

yes a nuclear train would be possible, similar sized undertaking to a nuclear sub I would imagine.

However the problems to overcome are mainly public opinion and the safety thereof.

[jake-the-peg]

Nuclear submarines use surrounding water for cooling which you can't do on a train. This and the shielding would make it horribly inefficient.

Best thing to to would be to use a stationary generator and transmit the power to the train like er oh yes we kind of do that don't we?

[padanarm]

Whatever happened to the future we were promised? I guess we'll never see the Ford Nucelon?

Seriously, I just wanted to find out if there was a practical limit on how small a nucelar reactor could be.

[Ice.Maiden]

If this's ever going to be possible padanarm, it won't be in the foreseeable future.
Reactors to create electricity for instance, work by nuclear fission. A form of uranium's used, and heat & radiation are released when a neuton hits an atom of uranium and splits it.
Water reactors work when the core turns to steam, and then it's used to power the generator from which electricity travels through the power lines.
This's cause a bit of a problem if you wanted to power a car by this method - and where would all the "spent" uranium go???!!

[jake-the-peg]

The size of a nuclear reactor is determined by how much you want to power and how much shielding you need.

The reactors on space probes are quite small about 200Kg on Voyager

Toshiba has a 20x6 ft one at 200KW so that'd drive your train nicely - only it was designed to be buried deep underground.

http://nextbigfuture.com/2007/12/micro-and-sma ll-nuclear-reactors.html