Well if it makes you feel better, the US government spent about 1 billion 1950s dollars on nuclear powered aircraft between 1949 and 1959. Some remnants can still be viewed, e.g. in the parking lot of the EBR-1 museum near Arco, ID, which usually opens around Memorial Day if you're in the Snake River Valley area.
One spin-off out of these is molten salt reactor technology, which was adapted from airplanes to power reactors in the 1960s, but died anyway, along with about a half-dozen other "crazy" reactor technologies intent on making economical nuclear power.
One spin-off out of these is molten salt reactor technology, which was adapted from airplanes to power reactors in the 1960s, but died anyway, along with about a half-dozen other "crazy" reactor technologies intent on making economical nuclear power.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aircraft_Nuclear_Propulsion