[dutchflyboy]

The idea is nice, but I think it's impossible. Just think of the amount of material you'd need to take in the plane for the shielding. And what about the water used to power the turbines? You'd also need a huge water tank. It's just way too heavy for the moment. We first need to find a more efficient (in the case of a plane, lighter) way to get energy out of a nuclear power source.

[Groxx]

Actually, after a bit of hunting... an An-225[1] can carry 250,000 kilos, and a 100 megawatt SSTAR reactor[2] is projected to weigh ~500,000, with 10 megawatt ones projected to be ~200,000. A quick perusal of Wikipedia suggests other ones may be smaller yet, including a couple which have been made (but I can't find any weights except for the SSTAR).

Surely we can make a bigger plane, especially if the power output of these things is enough to significantly increase the power of the engines, meaning the plane won't have to be as light (I'm thinking a flying-wing plane). Though does anyone know what the approx. power of those engines might be?

[1] : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonov_An-225 [2] : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SSTAR