By Sheer Accident

EDIT: The other thing is that you can theoretically install solar panels or a freaking pebble-bed reactor in them, so when fuel gets too expensive for regular air shipment of crap, this will be the fastest option. Assuming we don't figure out the whole "nuclear ramjet" thing in such a way that it doesn't poison whatever it overflies.

The nuclear ramjet thing is relatively easy, you use a closed cycle (think PWR with the "secondary" loop being the whole atmosphere...). That does impose a weight penalty, though, not ideal.
 
With all the money that was poured into the development of [nuclear weapons], they dont really seem like an accident.

They required several lucky discoveries: the discovery of the neutron ; that you could start a fission chain-reaction in uranium ; the fact that you needed boron-free graphite to run a pile ; the discovery of PTFE (Teflon) to use as a gas-diffusion barrier for enriching uranium ; etc. If Leo Szilard dies, say during WWI, there might not be atomic weapons in the 20th century.
 
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