Nuclear explosions could Power Boeing Engines

Tiny nuclear explosions combined with laser, could power future Boeing aircraft engines.

A unique propulsion system patented by Boeing, a new engine producing tiny nuclear explosions that scatters atoms and high energy neutrons, concentrated to exit out of the thruster thus propelling the aircraft forward.

Boeing explains: “A stream of pellets containing nuclear material such as Deutrium or Tritium is fed into a hot-stop within a thruster of the aircraft. Then multiple high powered laser beams are all focused onto the hot-spot. The pellet is instantly vaporized and the high temperature causes a nuclear fusion reaction.”

And this is where Boeing has done something extremely clever. The inner walls of the thruster are coated with a fissile material like Uranium-238 that undergoes a nuclear fission upon being struck by the high energy neutrons. This releases enormous energy in the form of heat. A coolant is circulated along the inner walls to pick up this heat and power a turbine which in turn generates huge amounts of electric power. And guess what this electric power is used for? To power the same lasers that created the electric power! In effect, this space-craft is self-powered with virtually no external energy needed.