The only problem with nuclear power is the disposal of waste and old reactors. These things are contaminated with radiation producing isotopes and chemically very poisonous elements.
The only problem with nuclear power is the disposal of waste and old reactors. These things are contaminated with radiation producing isotopes and chemically very poisonous elements. Both things make a safe disposal almost impossible. A disposal site would have to last millions of years without interference or releasing any of the contaminated material into the environment.When factoring in disposal, I think solar is the vastly simpler power source, even on Mars. Especially when talking about terraforming Mars in the long term.
To be clear, I didnt meant to say that disposal is impossible or even prohibitive for nuclear. Its just very hard. And if you factor in disposal, solar power becomes more favourable in my opinion. Even the disposal containers posted above do not last millions of years. They need to be taken care of. You cant dump them anywhere easily either because no geological site is stable for millions of years. If you want to terraform Mars, water is going to get everywhere, you cant put them in some crater either.
Possibility of a submarine based nuclear power system being adapted to a ship sent to Mars? Just putting this out there, how many years to integrate?
Don't forget that Elon plans to send the first cargo MCT to Mars in 2022 to produce the return fuel for the fist crew launched NET in 2024. As fuel production is quite energy-intensive, the '22 flight must carry a significant source of energy. It must be robotically depoyable. I do not think that any of the nuclear options can be developed to be flight ready in time.
Perhaps the thing to do is a separate section for Mars habitability, landing locations, power gen, etc discussions that is independent of talking about whose launcher / organization/ business plan is used to get there.
I think all of this will become a lot clearer at the end of next month, but having followed Elon and his companies for about 14 years, my bet is on solar. His other companies involve batteries and solar power generation, it just makes sense. And it is excellent PR don't forget, sales fund all his pet projects. It is going to take some cash to colonize Mars and this would be some amazing PR for solar power.