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AMD 256.00+0.5%3:59 PM EDT
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To: Joe NYC who wrote (71858)10/26/2025 9:51:30 PM
From: combjelly of 72016
 
It doesn't matter how fast it flies. A problem with using a reactor for propulsion like this is that unless you use some sort of heat exchanger, you are going to spew radiation when it flies. And that means weight. Which is what killed every project that both the US and the USSR experimented with way back when. But even with a heat exchanger, it is still has problems rooted in physics.

Everything about it puts it in the doomsday device category. If they launch one, it might as well be tipped with a nuke. Because once it explodes it is going to scatter radioactive debris everywhere as a dirty bomb. So whether there is a nuclear explosive or not, it will be treated as such. In flight, it is going to be a very bright spot in the IR band. Extremely trackable from space, so being subsonic with the ability to fly for very long period of time is not a huge win. So you can't just launch it and have it fly around for days or weeks until you decide what to do with it. Nor is it great as a recallable threat. Adequate shielding is not going to happen with something that flies, so once the reactor goes critical, no one will be able to touch it for a long time after the reactor is scrammed. So recalling is not really an option. I suppose they could be ditched in Siberia or the oceans, but...

Launching one would trigger a retaliatory strike just like launching an ICBM. The only difference would be that Moscow and St. Petersburg would be sprouting nuclear mushrooms before it reached its targets.
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