WordNet
n. the use of a nuclear reactor either to produce electricity to power an engine (as in a nuclear submarine) or to directly heat a propellant (as in nuclear rockets)
Wikipedia
Nuclear propulsion includes a wide variety of propulsion methods that fulfill the promise of the Atomic Age by using some form of nuclear reaction as their primary power source. The idea of using nuclear material for propulsion dates back to the beginning of the 20th century. In 1903 it was hypothesised that radioactive material, radium, might be a suitable fuel for engines to propel cars, boats, and planes. H. G. Wells picked up this idea in his 1914 fiction work The World Set Free.
Usage examples of "nuclear propulsion".
Robbie Newman saw things as any engineer who was Director of Naval Nuclear Propulsion would—.
Robbie Newman saw things as any engineer who was Director of Naval Nuclear Propulsion would--everything was black and white, and Larsen hadn't said a thing that wasn't distinctly gray.
Might there not be some poisonous exudation from this new-fangled nuclear propulsion?
Once in orbit, though, there was a nuclear propulsion module waiting to power our flight back to Earth.
With the additional specific impulse that nuclear propulsion gives us, we can widen the launch window considerably.
The B model Tiger was a leap ahead of the original, mounting not just a railgun capable of striking the enemy even in space, but also nuclear propulsion, much thickened and enhanced armor, a new AI suite.
Each fragment would have its own smaller, non-nuclear propulsion system and attitude control system.
But that problem would go away and usher in a new era of manned exploration of the outer Solar Systemwhen the race to develop a dependable, high-performance, pulsed nuclear propulsion system was won, which would bring the typical Mars round-trip down to somewhere around ten days.
MODE, and with growing assurance identified it as a set of controls for flying the ship on nuclear propulsion when the main system was inoperative.
Captain, it looks like the exhaust of an old-style, nuclear propulsion system.
Even with the best nuclear propulsion systems, it still takes an awful lot of energy to hoist a payload up from the surface of Earth into orbit.
Magazine, one in Issue 28 of HandHeldCrime -- and numerous magazine articles on subjects ranging from blood transfusions to NASA's nuclear propulsion program.
Magazine and numerous magazine articles on subjects ranging from blood transfusions to NASA's nuclear propulsion program.
Captain, it looks like the exhaust of a old style nuclear propulsion system.