>>5457426Can we use integrate it into nuclear salt water rocket engines? Converting nuclear energy to electricity to drive ion engines sounds way too inefficient.
Let's flex how absolutely nuts we are. Basically, we dissolve uranium salt into water, store and pump it through tanks and pipes with boron control rods and shielding to absorb neutrons to passively prevent unwanted meltdowns.
But when the salt water reaches the engines, there's no boron there, the uranium reacts and goes kaboom, exploding the water into hot plasma. With this much power we can reach a 7.5% percent c surfing on a nonstop-Chernobyl.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvZjhWE-3zMhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_salt-water_rocketAnd a portion of the salt water can still be routed through a normal reactor to generate electricity to run normal ion thrusters for maneuvering around. I'm imagining one fuckoff huge nuclear engine, surrounded by clusters of normal ion thrusters.
Just make sure the water doesn't leak or else we'll have a normal Chernobyl disaster in the ship. Plus, this integrates well with our cooling system of superheated steam afterburners.