So... was moments ago reading some reporting about this missile accident the Russians had a couple of days back that caused a measureable radiation-spike. Apparently this was the result of a failed test of the Burevestnik: evidently this is some sort of nuclear-powered ("powered" not "armed") cruise-missile of a sort. It is sadly inconvenient that the Kremlin has not provided details of this top-secret doomsday device (and also sad that that it looks like thermo-nuclear annihilation is back on the cards... its' the 'eighties again!) so am lead to wonder... WHAT THE HELLS IS A NUCLEAR ROCKET-ENGINE!? Obviously this is not some kind-of radio-isotope power-source running piddly little ion-drives, what with the thing being a dammned hypersonic missile... it is obviously a proper rocket-engine. How does this work? Is it vapourising some sort of propellant using a reactor? Would this propellant be water (in 'Seveneves'-fashion), or something else. Could this be the sort of propulsion-system that'd allow the use of scavenged fuel in deep-Space... the implications (aside from the obvious one that we might want to place our heads between our knees and kiss our collective arses good-bye) for Space-exploration would seem intriguing. www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-49319160