Talk:Nuclear salt-water rocket

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How would a engine using such a fuel work? -- angel'o'sphere

Within the propellant tanks, neutron density of the fuel would be low due to the geometry/neutron absorptive materials of the tank walls, so temperature would be low too and thus the fuel would remain liquid.. However when injected into the reaction chamber, the neutron density (and therefore temperature) of the fuel would rise sharply and therefore the water would more or less instantly change to high pressure steam which would exit through a nozzle at high velocity and thus propel the craft. Of course you then have radioactive steam floating about so you don't want to try this at home ! -- Derek Ross | Talk 16:36, Feb 9, 2005 (UTC)

Except that the radioactive steam should be travelling quickly enough that it's not bound by the Sun's gravity well, and should leave the Solar system in time. Just make sure you're not pointing towards Earth (or another inhabited body) when you fire that rocket... Wtrmute 14:34, 2 March 2006 (UTC)

Come on guys, this radioactive steam will have velocity of several tens of km/s (or else why bother with it at all? - go for chemical or ion engines then) and will most likely leave solar system. And even if it doesn't, it will be extremely diluted and not present any danger at all.

Even if engine is pointed to Earth, exhaust plume some divergence (let's say 5 degrees). Should be absolutely safe unless you are on LEO.

IOW: the only moderately unsafe way to fire this thing is to fire it in LEO with plume directed to Earth (which doesn't make much sense from orbital dynamics POV anyway).