Launched in the 90s and one of only a dozen ships to reach the North Pole, the Yamal will never travel to antarctic waters, since its water cooled reactor would overheat and melt down in the tropics.

The Ford Nucleon concept car, from 1958 is an icon of the nuclear age, when attitudes to nuclear energy were far more positive. It was a serious proposal for a car with a hot swap-able reactor that could travel across the US without re-fueling.

Like the Ford Nucleon, the Savannah was an iconic product of the nuclear age, except that it was really built. A showcase ship it had luxury fittings and a sleek design. The ship has been decommissioned and declared a National Historic Landmark. It is currently being renovated as a Museum piece.

Developed between the mid 60s and early 80s, the RD-0410 was the only truly functional Soviet nuclear rocket engine.

Although several dozen nuclear powered space craft have been launched, the multi billion dollar Cassini mission to Saturn carried the largest amount of Plutonium ever sent into space (72lbs). This was something that had people concerned about the fallout (literally) should the mission fail on launch.

In the early 50s in a remote (private!) part of Idaho, a test facility was setup for nuclear heated jet engines to power bombers. The massive weight would have required 15,000 ft. runways. The advent of the ICBM rendered the project for nuclear powered bombers, obsolete.

The Tory was the worlds first nuclear ramjet engine, designed for use on Cruise missiles. Two prototypes were tested in Nevada in the early 60s.

Developed in the mid 60s with the intention of being used for Mars missions, the NERVA was the successor to the (flightless) KIWI program. The project intended to produce an engine for the top stage of a Saturn V for interplanetary propulsion, once in orbit.

China has a series of lunar missions and space missions planned which will (hopefully) re-ignite the space race. Their Lunar rover looks rather like the NASA Mars rover, except that it is to be nuclear powered.

This iconic image shows an XE version of the NERVA nuclear powered rocket engine, on its way to the test stand at a place called Jackass Flats in Nevada. ‘Jackass’ and Nuclear rocket engine - the mind boggles.

The KIWI series was a line of nuclear reactors, designed and built in the late 1950’s and 1960’s as part of the Rover program, to develop the basic technology of nuclear thermal rockets.

Everything from cars to cargo ships can be nuclear powered, not just aircraft carriers or submarines,. If you want a really wild motor for your vehicle here are some real examples of nuclear engines. <p /><p />To avoid more well known examples, we have not included carriers and submarines in this chart, and we have tried to link to images of the actual engines. Vote for your faves.