AUTO HISTORY
America’s obsession with all things nuclear in the 1950s led to an incredibly futuristic concept car from Ford, the Nucleon.
When the United States dropped atomic bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima, Japan in August 1945 it not only ended the Second World War in Japan, it initiated the nuclear age.
While deeply mysterious to most people, some began wondering if the atom really was the awesome new source of energy that magazines like Popular Mechanics had predicted in the early 1940s. Could a cheap pea-sized nuclear pellet really power your car for a year?
This was long before the Three Mile Island and Chernobyl nuclear catastrophes, a time when nuclear power was seen as another of the blessings that science could harness for civilian convenience and pleasure.
It was part of the boundless do anything optimism flowing from the Second World War, especially in the United States. Military technology could now be turned to peaceful use for humanity’s benefit, and there was an almost blind faith in science. Could there be a more ubiquitous application than the nuclear powered automobile?
It wasn’t long into the atomic age before an authoritative voice seemed to reinforce this naive faith in nuclear technology. In 1945 a somewhat off-beat but brilliant and futuristic engineer named William Stout, designer of the Ford trimotor airplane and 1930s Stout Scarab, a kind of forerunner to the minivan, predicted there would be atomic powered cars in our future. It was a bold prophesy, although he hedged his bet by saying gasoline would still be used for a long time.
Besides the craft magazines, some of the motoring press would get on the nuclear bandwagon. Motor Trend’s April 1951 edition featured a cover rendition of a futuristic, eight-wheeled, finned extravaganza with a bubble windshield and the caption: “Exclusive! Tomorrow’s Atom Car!” More conservative Road & Track did not mention it.
What seemed to be overlooked or downplayed were the many barriers to a nuclear car, the most obvious being that no nuclear reactor had yet been produced small enough for an automobile.
Then there was also the reality that nuclear fission emitted deadly radiation that was invisible, tasteless and odourless. The weight of the shielding required to protect people would make a car prohibitively heavy – estimated at up to 50 tons. This was either not understood or conveniently forgotten. Or perhaps there was confidence that science could create shielding light enough for automobiles. The result was that many people continued to believe that nuclear power would find its way into automobiles.
In spite of their great coteries of knowledgeable engineers and scientists, automobile companies were not immune to the public’s infatuation. Chrysler Corp. designed a futuristic looking nuclear car with passengers well forward of the wheels to keep them far from the reactor. It didn’t get past paper illustrations.
Studebaker-Packard designed a futuristic looking fibreglass dream machine they called the Astral. Nothing came of it.
Benson Ford, grandson of Henry Ford and an executive with Ford Motor Co. encouraged members of the Society of Automotive Engineers to design a nuclear powered car.
Ford already had an underground lab in Dearborn experimenting with using radio isotopes in metal inspection so they were not entirely ignorant on the subject. It was therefore not surprising that Ford ventured farthest down the atomic car trail in 1958 – even if it did not go all out and create a full size prototype.
Ford’s “atomic car” called the Nucleon was a 3/8 scale model about 1905 mm (75 in.) long. Realizing they must keep passengers and the atomic powerplant as far apart as possible the Nucleon resembled an extended pickup truck with the sides of the box looking like long booms. Being the 1950s it had huge tailfins.
To keep maximum separation between passengers and radiation the nuclear reactor would be located at the very rear over the axle where a pickup bed would normally be. The passenger cabin was perched far forward with the driver ahead of the front wheels. This unusual profile with sleek nose, narrow slit headlamps and wraparound windshield gave a very futuristic appearance.
Nuclear fission in the small reactor would heat water to produce steam that spun turbines, primarily to power the car, but also generate electricity. The steam condensed back to water and reused, and the reactor could be exchanged after many thousand miles. It was similar to the system used in nuclear submarines.
The Nucleon didn’t get past that scale model stage but it was still the boldest move by a motor company, demonstrating that Ford was at least thinking ahead. Alas, there were too many strikes against the atomic car.
After its demonstration days were over the Nucleon was stored away for many years, not destroyed like so many concept cars. This tiny chimerical chapter in automotive history is now in the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Mich.