Nuclear Laser Powered Cadillac

[jimmy olsen]

The Brain's dream car.

http://www.digitaltrends.com/cars/cadillac-concept-powered-thorium-lasers-can-last-100-years/#!bGy6fZ

This insane Cadillac concept remains a radioactive, laser-powered dream
By Nick Jaynes — January 21, 2014

Back in 2009, Loren Kulesus – a very imaginative digital designer – came up with a very strange looking concept called the Cadillac World Thorium Fuel Concept. While its exterior dimensions were certainly notable, it's the stuff that powered it that really made waves – or lasers, rather.

The key energy source is a mildly radioactive metal, and one of the most dense materials known in nature, thorium. The thorium would be used to power a laser, which would then heat water, creating steam that turned a small turbine and propelled the car.

While some laughed at the concept (Top Gear even called it the Cadillac WTF Concept), a few others took Kulesus' idea quite seriously, specifically Laser Power Systems (LPS) from Connecticut.

LPS has created its own thorium engine, which, according to Industrytrap, weighs around 500 pounds and could power a car for 100 years on only eight grams of thorium, thereby supplanting more than 7,396 gallons of gasoline over a century. And that's just in one vehicle.

Just like the Cadillac World Thorium Fuel Concept, LPS engine isn't quite ready for a road trip. The company has reportedly been prepping prototypes since 2011. To our knowledge, however, no actual thorium-powered car has hit the road yet. We reached out to LPS for an update but CEO Dr. Charles Stevens didn't "have time to comment."

We're quite intrigued by the technology, though, so we'll be sure to stay on top of it. Be sure to check back for updates, albeit every few years.

[Monoriu]

So this is like a nuclear powered car?  If so, how do they address issues like nuclear safety, disposal of nuclear waste, what will happen to the nuclear fuel when one of these cars is inevitably involved in a serious crash, if experts are needed to do regular maintenance etc? 

[CountDeMoney]

Your key fob will double as a dosimeter.

[MadImmortalMan]

Presumably the engine is inside a shielded compartment.

Still, eight grams for a hundred years is pretty damn good. I wonder if they make little mushroom clouds when you shoot them like in Fallout.


You know what always gets me about these concept cars--they look all cool and stuff at the expo as a concept but by the time they get to market they look like a Camry just like everything else. If they put even half the things at the car shows on the market the way they looked as a concept car it would be so awesome.

[Monoriu]

I don't know, I am not familiar with car technology.  All I want is a car that moves at a resonable price.  I don't think a new car produced in 2014 is that different from a car produced in the 90s.  I am sure they changed a couple of things, but at least I don't feel the differences.  Maybe we have already reached a point in the diminishing return curve that further improvements to common cars aren't worth the trouble.  I can't think of anything that I want that isn't already in my car.  Other than a lower price tag, of course. 

[Agelastus]

So this is like a nuclear powered car?  If so, how do they address issues like nuclear safety, disposal of nuclear waste, what will happen to the nuclear fuel when one of these cars is inevitably involved in a serious crash, if experts are needed to do regular maintenance etc?

The key words are "mildly radioactive", in this case of alpha radiation; read the Wikipedia article on thorium, it's quite interesting.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorium#Dangers_and_biological_roles

The decay materials are more concerning, I admit; however we're only talking about 8 grams of material here in a shielded environment and large numbers of humans are already exposed to some of them anyway. I live in a high radon area myself.

[The Brain]

Thorium is subject to safeguards under the NPT.

[Valmy]

Thorium is subject to safeguards under the NPT.

It is perfectly safe so long as you avoid Feros.

[DontSayBanana]

Hoax.  The laser output of this thing would need to be in the terajoules range to work as described, so we're talking something the size of the laser assembly at the National Ignition Facility.  How much room does that take up?  The complex is about as long as three football fields, and it's ten stories high.  Oh, and it takes constant retuning to produce laser pulses in the TJ range.

The Energy From Thorium Foundation also lists this as a hoax: http://energyfromthorium.com/2014/04/13/mythology-thorium-car-thorium-plasma-batteries/

[KRonn]

Haven't the oil and/or auto companies bought out this company yet??   

[grumbler]

Haven't the oil and/or auto companies bought out this company yet??   

That's precisely what the owners of the company want, IMO.  It's an impossible concept and a fraud (I mean, the car involved is just CGI, and not particularly believable CGI at that), but who is it aimed at?  The public?  I don't think so.  What do they have to gain from exciting the public?  It's got to be people with the money to buy them out.

[Razgovory]

I'm not even clear how Thorium could power a car.  I thought the use thorium in fission was still experimental.  Besides, wouldn't need to be the size of a building?

[Siege]

I don't know, I am not familiar with car technology.  All I want is a car that moves at a resonable price.  I don't think a new car produced in 2014 is that different from a car produced in the 90s.  I am sure they changed a couple of things, but at least I don't feel the differences.  Maybe we have already reached a point in the diminishing return curve that further improvements to common cars aren't worth the trouble.  I can't think of anything that I want that isn't already in my car.  Other than a lower price tag, of course. 

You cant be serious.
Ever heard of the google car?
What about smart cars?

[Eddie Teach]

Thorium-powered cars sounds like something they'd come up with in Gnomeregan.

[Siege]

Well, I guess this is another nuclear steam engine.