Orion was essentially an "external combustion engine". I.e. you have a huge piston that is driven by repeated explosion of nuclear bombs. With a spring mecanism

Orion was essentially an "external combustion engine". I.e. you have a huge piston that is driven by repeated explosion of nuclear bombs. With a spring mecanism to even out the whallops. And no "engine block" around it. It did not generate electricity, and given the discrete/pulsed nature of the mecanism, I have a hard time seeing how you would "even out" the output, should you decide (somehow) to attach it to a generator. Let alone imagining how you would transport said electricity back to earth. Because, don't forget, it was possible to have an external combusion engine because it was in space. Even by 50's standards, the project was judged a non-starter for atmospheric flight, from environmental standards point-of-view. The project itself was in theory viable for it's original objective (space travel), but highly impractical. It requires massive, robust structures (read 'heavy') that can resist very high impacts. Not a problem once you're into space, but you have to get it into space first. And no-one will let you blow up a couple of scores of nukes in the atmosphere, on a recurring basis. The thought of launching hundreds of nukes into space to a ship built in orbit is not exactly an easy proposition either. Still, should an extinction-level meteor ever show it's face, it would be useful. For fun : some original footage of the prototypes in flight (using high explosives) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8Sv5y6iHUM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8Sv5y6iHUM