Recently Obama has advocated nuclear power plants as an energy source with no carbon footprint.

I am hoping the winds of public opinion are changing. If anti-nuclear hysteria subsides, pursuing notions like NTR rockets becomes possible.

Googling NERVA I found some people who thought NERVA was ready, all we had to do was bolt them to the Apollo rockets.

Then others seem to believe the project was discontinued because of technical problems and cost over runs.

A high thrust and high ISP rocket would certainly be a game changer. It's worth pursuing in my opinion.