If Bill Gates has his way then it just might be!! Imagine buying a car that never has to be refueled and has a non-existent carbon footprint!
Bill Gates is going atomic. The Microsoft founder’s startup TerraPower is partnering with Toshiba to build a traveling-wave reactor. These reactors run on depleted uranium, rather than the enriched sort found in light-water reactors, only have to be refueled every 60 to 100 years, and are small enough to fit in a hot tub. it is all part of Gates’ quest for zero carbon emissions in the next 40 years.
Toshiba has been working on its own mini nuclear reactors with a 30-year shelf life, making it the perfect partner for the software magnate-turned-philanthropist. Its 4S model (Super-Safe, Small and Simple) is expected to get US approval this year, and Toshiba is hoping to start production by 2014. The New York Times and the Nikkei are also claiming that Gates might invest several billion dollars of his own fortune in the project.
A nuclear powered car would just be the ultimate in cool!