Nuclear trucks

[MommaKay]

Do they have those at Wal-Mart yet?

[lostNfound]

Originally Posted by MommaKay

Do they have those at Wal-Mart yet?

Hmm, an extremely complex and potentially lethal device manufactured by the lowest-cost bidder.









Oh, wait...

[ETS FTW]

I don't care how little radioactive material was in the thing, no, just no. There are too many people with way too much time on their hands that would find very bad things to do with a mini nuclear reactor. As for the electric truck idea. The batteries would weigh so much you wouldn't be able to haul enough. However, like a train if you used a diesel engine to generate electricity, which powered the motors, that would be much more feasible.

[pvwowk]

Originally Posted by ETS FTW

The batteries would weigh so much you wouldn't be able to haul enough.

Not anymore.

New Lithium Iron phosphate batteries (very safe, cheap, and energy dense) run at 364 kJ/Kg. (A fully loaded truck uses about 7200 KJ/mile of mechanical energy) Lead-acid run at 108 kJ/Kg - 144 kJ/Kg.

Doing the math, a ~4000 pound pack would get you 100 miles pulling a full load (80k pounds GVCW). Weight for everything else from motors to controllers to chargers will run in the 1000-2000 pound range, whatever the battery pack size is.

The downside is such a pack would cost something like 100k right now... but there is a lot of competition (~10 companies are building these batteries, only about 2 just introduced their battery) and I suspect the price will drop dramatically.

[MommaKay]

Originally Posted by pvwowk

Not anymore.

New Lithium Iron phosphate batteries (very safe, cheap, and energy dense) run at 364 kJ/Kg. (A fully loaded truck uses about 7200 KJ/mile of mechanical energy) Lead-acid run at 108 kJ/Kg - 144 kJ/Kg.

Doing the math, a ~4000 pound pack would get you 100 miles pulling a full load (80k pounds GVCW). Weight for everything else from motors to controllers to chargers will run in the 1000-2000 pound range, whatever the battery pack size is.

The downside is such a pack would cost something like 100k right now... but there is a lot of competition (~10 companies are building these batteries, only about 2 just introduced their battery) and I suspect the price will drop dramatically.

I should think the "downside" would be a range of 100 miles for ~4000# worth of batteries. A diesel truck can run for about two thousand miles on half of that weight in fuel (300 gallons, 6.5 mpg), fill up in fifteen minutes or less and do it again.

[Moses]

Originally Posted by ETS FTW

However, like a train if you used a diesel engine to generate electricity, which powered the motors, that would be much more feasible.

The Army had rigs like this in the 1950's, for use across the Alaskan tundra, and also in Greenland. Low-pressure tires 10 feet tall floated on the snow that a man couldn't walk on. Rumor has it there are still some trailers buried in the snow in Greenland.

A nuclear sub has an unlimited amount of cooling water at its disposal. A nuclear rig could be powered by a steam turbine, but you'd need a trailer full of nuke techs to run the thing. You think you have a lot of gauges to keep an eye on now? Oh, and what's the worst that can happen if your water temp goes into the red? Er, let's not go there....

As for solar, a 53' trailer roof full of collectors would get you enough juice to run your cell phone and GPS.