[Lee Stewart]

The 1958 Ford Nucleon.

In 1957 the US built its first nuclear powered electricity generating plant. 3 years prior (1954) the US Navy launched the USS Nautilus. The worlds first nuclear powered submarine.

So Nuclear as a fuel was brand new. Prior to 54 it was only used in weapons of mass destruction: Hydrogen Bombs.

Ford envisioned a future where gas stations would be replaced with full service recharging stations, and that the vehicle would get 5,000 miles (8,000 km) before the reactor would have to be exchanged for a new one. These would be scaled-down versions of the nuclear reactors that military submarines used at the time, utilizing uranium as the fissile material. Because the entire reactor would be replaced, Ford hypothesized that the owner would have multiple choices for reactors, such as a fuel-efficient model or a high-performance model, at each reactor change. Ultimately, the reactor would use heat to convert water into steam and the power train would be steam-driven