REACTOR FACILITY
The Plum Brook Reactor Facility at Plum Brook Station [today, Neil Armstrong Test Facility] operated from 1962 to 1973. The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) purchased the land in 1956 to build a test reactor to support nuclear propulsion research, first for aircraft then rockets. The 60-MW reactor conducted over 70 experiments, most of which studied the effects of radiation on various materials. The reactor ceased operation in 1973 when the Nation’s nuclear rocket program was canceled. Decommissioning began in 1998.
