New here, asteroids prefered

Sailor, I forwarded a lot of factual data about NERVA in an earlier post that shows the below post as fantasy. The NERVA rocket is a nuclear thermal system where the energy is pulled off a pile to heat water for use (as vapor) for propulsive reaction mass and (via turbine) as power for an interplanetary spaceships life4 support module. It was in the NASA works as the motor of choice until it lost funding (along with countless other worthwhile programs) during the Reagan years. If nuclear pulse was considered as most effective in '45, it didn't maintain that status for long.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NERVA

From: sailor.barsoom
Sent: Wednesday, June 30, 2010 11:43 PM
To: spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [spacesettlers] Re: New here, asteroids prefered

--- In spacesettlers, Gary Church wrote:

> NERVA has an ISP of 850- from a reaction one million
> times more powerful than chemical fuel. Like using a
> napalm airstrike to light a cigarette. The problem with
> any nuclear rocket is containment- it is hard enough to
> keep a chemical rocket from melting. Stan Ulam
> correctly deduced that a fast fission device- a bomb-
> would be the most effective propulsion system for
> spacecraft. That was in 1945 shortly after the first
> one was lit off. It is still the only system that does
> not waste almost the entire amount of energy being
> produced. ISP for a Nuclear Pulse Propulsion system
> would be in the thousands and most probably in the tens
> of thousands.

Nuclear salt water rocket?