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  1. 1 The Ford Nucleon was Ford’s 1958 idea for a car powered by a rear-mounted, self-contained nuclear reactor. The Henry Ford
  2. 2 It never went beyond a non-working 3/8-scale model. The Henry Ford (brochure)
  3. 3 Ford never actually built a nuclear-powered car, concept or otherwise. Hemmings (Kurt Ernst)
  4. 4 The Nucleon was never produced. The Henry Ford
  5. 5 The Henry Ford museum calls it more a public relations exercise than serious research and development. The Henry Ford (brochure)
  6. 6 The idea assumed that the problems of reactor size, weight and nuclear risk would eventually be solved. The Henry Ford
  7. 7 Ford said the design rested “on the assumption that the present bulkiness and weight of nuclear reactors and attendant shielding would someday be reduced.” Hemmings (Kurt Ernst)
  8. 8 The model was built to explore how the future of energy might change the design of cars. The Henry Ford
  9. 9 The model is 75 inches long, 29 inches wide and 15.5 inches high, weighs 45 lb, and is made of plastic. The Henry Ford
  10. 10 Ford made it in Dearborn, Michigan, and later gave it to The Henry Ford museum, where it is object 87.80.1. The Henry Ford
  11. 11 When we checked on 9 November 2026, The Henry Ford listed the model as on loan to the Atomic Museum in Las Vegas. The Henry Ford
  12. 12 Ford printed a brochure in 1958 called “Nucleon, a Glimpse into an Atomic-Powered Future”. A copy is kept at The Henry Ford’s Benson Ford Research Center. The Henry Ford (brochure)
  13. 13 The design came from Jim Powers, then in his first year in Ford’s Advanced Studio. Alex Tremulis liked his sketches and encouraged him to develop the idea. Hemmings (Kurt Ernst)
  14. 14 That account comes from Jim and Cheryl Farrell’s book Ford Design Department Concepts and Showcars, 1932-1961, as retold by Hemmings. Hemmings (Kurt Ernst)
  15. 15 The 3/8-scale model was made first in clay and then in fibreglass. Hemmings (Kurt Ernst)
  16. 16 It was first shown to the public in Ford’s travelling “Stylerama” show, and proved popular enough to earn a place in the Ford Rotunda. Hemmings (Kurt Ernst)
  17. 17 Its reactor core, which Ford called the “power capsule”, was meant to last 5,000 miles, then be swapped at the future version of a filling station. Hemmings (Kurt Ernst)
  18. 18 What would happen to the used fuel was never really worked out. Hemmings (Kurt Ernst)
  19. 19 Ford hinted that drivers could choose a core built for more power or one built for more range. Hemmings (Kurt Ernst)
  20. 20 The capsule sat at the back, between two long booms meant to carry the reactor and its shielding. Hemmings (Mike Bumbeck)
  21. 21 Ford left it to scientists to decide whether the power capsule would use nuclear fission or fusion. Hemmings (Mike Bumbeck)
  22. 22 Exactly how it would have driven its wheels was never pinned down. Some writers suggest a steam turbine, as in a nuclear submarine, with a second turbine making electricity for the lights and heating. Hemmings (Kurt Ernst)
  23. 23 Another description has the reactor’s energy turned into electricity, driving the wheels through electronic torque converters. Hemmings (Mike Bumbeck)
  24. 24 The motoring historian Bill Vance describes the reactor heating water into steam to spin turbines, with the steam condensed and reused, much as in nuclear submarines. Times Colonist (Bill Vance)
  25. 25 At full size it would have been more than 200 inches long, 77.4 inches wide and only 41.4 inches high, on a wheelbase of just 69.4 inches. Hemmings (Kurt Ernst)
  26. 26 The cabin sat far forward of the front wheels, to offset the expected weight of the reactor and its shielding at the back. Hemmings (Kurt Ernst)
  27. 27 Bill Vance adds the other reason: to keep the people and the reactor as far apart as possible. Times Colonist (Bill Vance)
  28. 28 It had a wraparound windscreen and a cantilevered roof with no front pillars. The only air intakes were at the top of the windscreen and at the foot of the rear roof pillars. Hemmings (Kurt Ernst)
  29. 29 The model’s windows are painted black: clear ones would have needed a mocked-up interior, and neither was in the design budget. Hemmings (Kurt Ernst)
  30. 30 It was first finished in bright red, with a silver roof and silver lower panels. Hemmings (Kurt Ernst)
  31. 31 It never reached the engineering stage, or even a wind tunnel. Hemmings (Kurt Ernst)
  32. 32 The radiation shielding alone would have made a car far too heavy: some estimates ran to 50 tons. Times Colonist (Bill Vance)
  33. 33 No nuclear reactor small enough for a car had been built. Times Colonist (Bill Vance)
  34. 34 As early as 1945 the engineer William Stout, designer of the Ford Tri-Motor aeroplane and the Stout Scarab, predicted atomic-powered cars. Times Colonist (Bill Vance)
  35. 35 Motor Trend’s April 1951 cover promised “Tomorrow’s Atom Car!” Times Colonist (Bill Vance)
  36. 36 In 1954 the US Navy launched the first nuclear-powered submarine, USS Nautilus, and under President Eisenhower’s “Atoms for Peace” programme work had begun on America’s first nuclear power station, at Shippingport, Pennsylvania. Hemmings (Kurt Ernst)
  37. 37 Benson Ford, Henry Ford’s grandson, encouraged members of the Society of Automotive Engineers to design a nuclear-powered car. Times Colonist (Bill Vance)
  38. 38 Ford already had an underground laboratory in Dearborn using radioisotopes to inspect metal. Times Colonist (Bill Vance)
  39. 39 Chrysler drew a nuclear car with its passengers well forward, but it never got past paper illustrations; Studebaker-Packard’s atomic dream car, the Astral, came to nothing too. Times Colonist (Bill Vance)
  40. 40 Bill Vance calls it the boldest move by any car company, even though it never got beyond the scale model. Times Colonist (Bill Vance)
  41. 41 After its Rotunda days the public largely forgot it. Smithsonian Institution researchers rediscovered the model in 1981; Ford repainted it, in solid red with a silver roof, and it spent two years at the Smithsonian before going back to Ford. Hemmings (Kurt Ernst)
  42. 42 A similar cab-forward layout appeared on the 1962 Ford Econoline van. Hemmings (Kurt Ernst)
  43. 43 Jim Powers believed the Nucleon’s rear helped inspire the rear of the 1961 Lincoln Continental. Hemmings (Kurt Ernst)
  44. 44 Alex Tremulis, who encouraged the Nucleon, later co-created the Gyro-X, a gyro-stabilised two-wheeled car of 1967. Lane Motor Museum