You don't need a nuclear expert, just around a high school physics class understanding of what's going on. From https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/

You don't need a nuclear expert, just around a high school physics class understanding of what's going on. From https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/fact-sheets/radwaste.html#waste https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/fact-sheets/r... > High-level wastes are hazardous because they produce fatal radiation doses during short periods of direct exposure. For example, 10 years after removal from a reactor, the surface dose rate for a typical spent fuel assembly exceeds 10,000 rem/hour – far greater than the fatal whole-body dose for humans of about 500 rem received all at once. And that's for fuel that's been run in commercial reactors, which is commonly only 5% enriched. The NASA reactor uses 90% enriched fuel. Once that thing is turned on it will become deadly for centuries. Any breach of containment during a car crash would be instantly lethal for a considerable distance. Using a robot to extract the core from the wreck and place it in new containment would be a very non trivial task taking days if not weeks. The idea of putting a kilopower reactor in a car is a total non starter, and not because people lack 'rationality' or aren't as smart as you think you are.