There is a concept similar to this called a <a href="http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/enginelist.php#id--Nuclear_Thermal--Gas_Core--Open_Cycle--Nuclear_Salt_Water">Nuclear Salt Water Rocket (NSWR)</A> that was proposed by an SF writer who is also a physicist. > The fuel is a 2% solution of 20% enriched Uranium Tetrabromide in > water. A Plutonium salt can also be used. > > Just to make things clear, there are two percentages here. The fuel is > a 2% solution of uranium tetrabromide and water. That is, 2 molecules > of uranium tetrabromide per 100 molecules of water. > > But the uranium tetrabromide can be 20% enriched. This means that out > of every 100 atoms of uranium (or molecules of uranium tetrabromide), > 20 are fissionable Uranium-235 and 80 are non-fissionable uranium. If > it is 90% enriched, then 90 atoms are Uranium-235 and 10 atoms are > non-fissionable. As a side note, 90% enriched is considered > "weapons-grade". > > The fuel tanks are a bundle of pipes coated with a layer of boron > carbide neutron damper. The damper prevents a chain reaction. The fuel > is injected into a long cylindrical plenum pipe of large diameter, > which terminates in a rocket nozzle. Free of the neutron damper, a > critical mass of uranium soon develops. The energy release vaporizes > the water, and the blast of steam carries the still reacting uranium > out the nozzle. > > It is basically a continuously detonating Orion type drive with water > as propellant. Although **Zubrin** puts it like this: > >> As the solution continues to pour into the plenum from the borated >> storage pipes, a steady-state conditions of a moving detonating fluid >> can be set up within the plenum. Also, just to be clear this is a concept that could work *in theory* but working out the engineering details will be incredibly difficult (and other scientists do not think it will ever be practical). NSWR: [![NSWR][1]][1] [1]: https://i.sstatic.net/zBQmV.jpg