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Originally Posted by bobcat
as far as the concerns over the power plant. remember we aren't talking about a navy design light water reactors that irradiate everyone around at the drop of a hat. we're talking about properly designed fusion reactors that fail-safe as a default.so there is no reason to be particularly paranoid about them.
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Well aware, I am assuming something like a proton-boron plant, stable fuel and high energy density. No, my concern for a fusion plant has nothing to do with radioactivity and more to do with the massive energy densities that would need to be contained for the reaction to take place, and breaching that vessel could have some pretty bad effects for anyone in the area. Put a round through a gas engine, and the engine dies. Put a round through an unprotected fusion reactor and there is a good chance everyone within 50 feet dies.
Quote:
Originally Posted by bobcat
as for requirements i think the project would have to take a more pragmatic approach to their requirements. ease of maintenance would have to be a primary concern with armor/reliability both sharing a backseat. vehicles would have to be capable of functioning for a significant amount of time without regular maintenance facilities which means every possible problem would have to be use-level maintenance. this actually eliminates most military vehicles from consideration. if you need cages and special equipment to top off air in a tire for example that is not a vehicle that can be maintained by a team in the middle of a post-apocalyptic wasteland with no fancy depot level maintenance.
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I agree that maintenance would be a large concern, but disagree that it would be primary. The reason is simple: a maintenance failure means you lose the use of the vehicle for some amount of time, while a protection failure means you lose the vehicle
and the crew permanently. The most easily maintainable vehicle in the world is useless if it cannot protect the crew from the huge number of people (compared to the size of TMP) interested in killing them and/or taking their vehicles.