Nuclear Locomotives

Trainman101 wrote:Build a nuclear power plant, buy some electric locomotives, and bingo! A nuclear powered locomotive, its that simple.

Didn't I just say that?

Nessman, back on Dec 13th, wrote:NOW... that said, one viable approach would be the use of electric locomotives with catenary powered by a nuclear power plant which would achieve the same goals, albeit with greater construction costs for the electrical stuff (catenary, nuke plant, etc...).

Yes you did sorry sir.

sunsetcc333 wrote:Several countries are very serious about developing nuclear locomotives in their quest for green energy. Brazil and China to name two. The advantages are less pollution, low cost over the long run, lower maintenance and easier to run. The big disadvantage is what happens if there is a collision?

Not related to Alco, moved to the General Discussion...

Full electrification (nuclear or otherwise) is the way to go if the consideration is "green energy".

That way the source of power can keep getting incrementally "greener" without having to replace locomotives every time something new comes along.

Sorry to dredge up an old topic, but this seems to be the most relevant thread.

RPI will be decommissioning the ex-Alco nuclear plant at the end of the spring semester to make way for the casino. We don't know yet if it will be relocated.

C.J.V.
-Current RPI student

Chrisnewhaven--
Hmmm… Not directly relevant to the "nuclear locomotive" topic (I don't think this reactor was ever intended to be part of r-and-d on THAT … genuine but never seriously pursued? … project, but definitely relevant to Alco history: I'd recommend posting to a NEW string on the Alco forum. If you do, I'll try to figure out what Alco was doing with a reactor in the first place and comment.

(I think a lot of companies in the 1950s and 1960s got involved in a small way with nuclear research: in some cases I suspect it was a p.r. exercise, meant to convince stockholders that management was up-to-date and forward-looking! But an actual reactor would have been expensive for p.r., and Alco WAS marketing some things to the nuclear industry….)

Nukengineer, it sounds like you have been around my area. I was once involved with a load from the W. Milton site. My wife's uncle was a nuke engineer at KAPL. Her cousin is too. Were you in the group which decommissioned the site in Windsor, CT too?

Trainman101 wrote:Build a nuclear power plant, buy some electric locomotives, and bingo! A nuclear powered locomotive, its that simple.

But NIMBYs wont let you build nuclear...but it would be great if you had nuclear...

Chinese made nuclear locomotives...NO THANKS!!