Years of development work on nuclear powered drones

United States scientists drew up blueprints for nuclear-powered drones, the Guardian reported.

Drones have become a key weapon of the Obama Administration and US intelligence services and the military uses them in several countries, including Pakistan and Yemen.

They are operated by "pilots" thousands of kilometres away and sometimes remain in the air for days. A new generation of nuclear-powered drones would be capable of flying for months on end without refuelling.

The plans were developed by the US Government's main nuclear research and development agency, Sandia National Laboratories, and by defence contractor Northrup Grumman. The drones would have more power for onboard surveillance, communications and weapons.

A summary of the research was published by a think-tank, the Federation of American Scientists, and was confirmed to the Guardian by Sandia.

The Guardian said the project was shelved because of concerns that public opinion would not accept the potential dangers of either a crash or of the technology falling into the hands of unfriendly nations or terrorists.

According to Wired's Danger Room blog, "The lab gave up on nuclear drones due to political pressures, perceived or otherwise."

The research summary said "none of the results will be used in the near-term or mid-term future" because of political constraints.

As far back as 1986, Northrup Grumman has been exploring nuclear reactor-equipped drones, the Guardian reports.

The summary states: "Industry now understands the technical, safety, and political issues surrounding implementation of these strategies. Industry now knows how significantly aerial operations can be improved by using these propulsion and power approaches even though current political conditions will not allow use of the results."

Chris Coles of Drone Wars UK told the Guardian: "It's a pretty terrifying prospect. Drones are much less safe than other aircraft and tend to crash a lot. There is a major push by this industry to increase the use of drones and both the public and Government are struggling to keep up with the implications."