The Ford Nucleon concept car.
The Ford Nucleon was a scale model concept car developed by Ford Motor Company in 1958 as a design on how a nuclear-powered car might look. The design did not include an internal-combustion engine, rather, the vehicle was to be powered by a small nuclear reactor in the rear of the vehicle, based on the assumption that this would one day be possible by reducing sizes.[1] The car was to use a steam engine powered by uranium fission similar to how nuclear submarines work.[2]
The mock-up of the car can be viewed at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan.[3]
In Popular Culture [edit]
The Nucleon is the inspiration for the nuclear cars (such as the fictional Chryslus Corvega, which in-game billboards describe as having an "Atomic V8" engine) scattered throughout the landscape of the Fallout series.[4] The games' depiction is more satirical however, showing the safety problems this would likely cause by having the cars explode in a mushroom cloud and release radiation when shot at by players or enemy NPCs.[5]
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