Nuclear Cars

Nuclear Cars

 hydrogen car defined to be an alternative fuel vehicle that uses hydrogen as its onboard fuel for motive power.  The term may also refer to a personal transportation vehicle, such as an automobile, or any other vehicle that uses hydrogen in a similar fashion, such as an aircraft.  The power plants of such vehicles convert the chemical energy of hydrogen to mechanical energy either by burning hydrogen in an internal combustion engine, or by reacting hydrogen with oxygen in a fuel cell to run electric motors.

The concept of hydrogen car is not new.  The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) used fuel cells to generate electricity aboard space missions during the 1960s, but Sir William Grove’s invention found little use of hydrogen in any other setting.  Geoffrey Ballard, founder of Ballard Power, a dual US-Canadian citizen who was educated in Harvard, turned the promise of a hydrogen-based economy powered by fuel cells into reality, a task that fell to several dozen scientists gathered on the outskirt of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

After dedicating itself to perfecting fuel cells for roughly 15 years and devoting $200 million to the cause, Ballard Power had much to celebrate in 1997 when it became the only company in the world to put a fuel-cell vehicle on the road.  It delivered three fuel-cell powered buses to the Chicago Transit Authority (Public transportation became the first market for the company’s fuel cells).   By 1997, 11 of the leading car manufacturers were developing emission-free, fuel-cell drive trains, and eight of those manufacturers were working with Ballard Power, led by Daimler-Benz AG, the parent company of Mercedes-Benz that invested $325 million for a 20 percent stake in Ballard Power.  Before the end of the year, Ford Motor Co. followed suit, investing $420 million for a 15 percent stake in the company. Together, the three partners were investing nearly $1 billion in the belief that fuel cells would...