[NicknamedBob]

Question for Robert A. Cook, P.E. = Since, “hydrogen-containing material like water, or light metals like carbon, Al, polyethylene, plastic, and other light metals and liquids literally "slow down" the neutron better than heavier material.”, a rocket ship with a nuclear engine could use solid Carbon Dioxide very efficiently as a reaction fuel, by extruding a cylinder of dry ice into a nuclear chamber where it would incandesce like a candle to produce an exhaust gas at high speed. Theoretically a simple design, but would it be better to use dry ice, or simply pressurized CO₂?

Question for Sionnsar = Was this the “Valley of the Shadow of Death”? (For this accretion of material, it had to be a valley.)

Question for Wonder Warthog = Does this mean I have to use Heavy Metals for my basement cold fusion plant? I really hate that kind of music.

[Robert A Cook PE]

Hmmmmmmmmmmn.

One-way pass-through CO2 as moderator/throw-away coolant for space thrust?

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmnnnnnnnnnn.

[Robert A Cook PE]

I'd go with solid CO2 since there's no weight lost for tanks, coolant required and refrigerators for the liquid CO2, and the handling of solid CO2 would seem to be easier.

Little bit of thermal stress as cold solid CO2 at one end of the reactor changes into hot gasses in the middle and far end of the reactor. That change would make calculations interesting, shall we say.