Plum Brook Reactor

41°23′09″N 82°40′59″W / 41.38585°N 82.68293°W / 41.38585; -82.68293

The Plum Brook Reactor was a NASA 60 megawatt water-cooled and moderated research nuclear reactor,^[1]^[2] located in Sandusky, Ohio, 50 mi west of the NASA Glenn Research Center (at that time the NASA Lewis Research Center) in Cleveland, of which it was organizationally a part.

The reactor was originally planned for the

Centaur upper stage. The reactor first went critical

on 14 June 1961, and was finally shut down on 5 January 1973.

The facility's decommissioning began in 1998, and the last of its structures was demolished in May 2012. The entire process ultimately cost $253 million, significantly more than the inflation-adjusted cost of constructing the facility.^[4]

References

^ Mark D. Bowles and Robert S. Arrighi (August 2004), NASA's Nuclear Frontier: The Plum Brook Nuclear Facility, NASA Monographs in Aerospace History 33.
^ SP-4317 Science in Flux: NASA’s Nuclear Program at Plum Brook Station 1955 – 2005, Mark D. Bowles, 2006
^ NASA Plum Brook Reactor Facility, Great Images in NASA.
^ Dave Mosher (21 June 2012). "Tour the tomb of NASA's first and last nuclear reactor". Wired. Retrieved 28 October 2013.

[1] Mark D. Bowles and Robert S. Arrighi (August 2004), NASA's Nuclear Frontier: The Plum Brook Nuclear Facility, NASA Monographs in Aerospace History 33.

[2] SP-4317 Science in Flux: NASA’s Nuclear Program at Plum Brook Station 1955 – 2005, Mark D. Bowles, 2006

[3] NASA Plum Brook Reactor Facility, Great Images in NASA.

[mosher-2012-4] Dave Mosher (21 June 2012). "Tour the tomb of NASA's first and last nuclear reactor". Wired. Retrieved 28 October 2013.

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