[antupis]

How safely we can ship nuclear rocket to deep space. That kinda rocket exploding at launch and basically turning dirty bomb could cause some nasty damage to enviroment and would be pr disaster.

[swiley]

Meh, we've put plenty of various kinds of nuclear reactors in space.

[m4rtink]

Also if you don't activate the reactor until after launch the fuel is still effectively just heavy metal.

[ianai]

Or even build it out there. Ie launch mostly pre built components. A ship that never has to worry about first leaving earths gravity well can have vastly different characteristics than something we’d launch from here.

[NikolaeVarius]

Do you really think nobody thinks of these issues?

[arisAlexis]

Imagine detonating nuclear bombs in the atmosphere on purpose. Oops, we did it already.

[papito]

The newer Mars rovers use nuclear power, although obviously, not the same type needed for propulsion.