There was a nuclear weapon developed that was sort of a flying drone. It was nuclear powered and had some sort of a nuclear warhead. It's main goal however was "area denial" type capabilities. When flying around it's designated target area it spewed out radioactive matter from it's engine causing the land it's flying over to become radioactively contaminated before ultimately detonating at it's target location. So basically just using that tech, without those safety features, as a design element. Pretty scary stuff.