Science In Flux: NASA's Nuclear Program at Plum Brook Station 1955-2005

by Mark D. Bowles

Science in Flux traces the history of one of the most powerful nuclear test reactors in the United States and the only nuclear facility ever built by NASA. In the late 1950's NASA constructed Plum Brook Station on a vast tract of undeveloped land near Sandusky, Ohio. Once fully operational in 1963, it supported basic research for NASA's nuclear rocket program (NERVA). Plum Brook represents a significant, if largely forgotten, story of nuclear research, political change, and the professional culture of the scientists and engineers who devoted their lives to construct and operate the facility. In 1973, after only a decade of research, the government shut Plum Brook down before many of its experiments could be completed. Even the valiant attempt to redefine the reactor as an environmental analysis tool failed, and the facility went silent. The reactors lay in costly, but quiet standby for nearly a quarter-century before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission decided to decommission the reactors and clean up the site. The history of Plum Brook reveals the perils and potentials of that nuclear technology. As NASA, Congress, and space enthusiasts all begin looking once again at the nuclear option for sending humans to Mars, the echoes of Plum Brook's past will resonate with current policy and space initiatives.

Genres: Science

Hardcover

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Join me as we journey into the mists of the past together.

______________________

Mark D. Bowles is Professor of History at American Public University System, founder of Belle History Publishing, and author of 15 books on the history of science and technology. His books, Science in Flux and the Apollo of Aeronautics, won the book of the year awards from the American Institute of Astronautics and Aeronautics in 2005 and 2010.

Dr. Bowles earned his Ph.D. from Case Western Reserve University in 1999. He also has MA in history, an MBA in technology management, and a BA in psychology. He is a former Tomash Fellow at the University of Minnesota.

Visit him online at www.ProfessorMDB.com

Reviews

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book covers the history of the two nuclear reactors at the Plum Brook Station in Sandusky, Ohio. The reactors supported research for nuclear powered airplanes and rockets, like the NERVA nuclear rocket. This book is an excellent history of the reactors, people and facilities of Plum Brook. The author assumes no prior knowledge of nuclear physics, or how a reactor works. The author does have a few appendices that cover such topics like reactor physics and the history of nuclear science, if you want to learn more. The book is highly readable. A must read for anyone interested in science history or the NERVA/ANP programs. I especially enjoyed how much the author drew from personal interviews with former staff of the station. Great book!

[Andrew O'Connor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Concisely lays out the entire history of Plum Brook. Maintains a decent level of historiography without overburdening with trivialities. Thoughtfully includes events both before and after the reactor program.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

I first visited NASA's Plum Brook Facility (now the Armstrong Test Facility) near Sandusky, Ohio in 2020 as an electrical technician to support the Artemis 1 pre-launch test campaign. Upon returning home I learned this book existed so I bought it to learn more about this neat little footnote of history. It sat on my shelf until early 2024 when Artemis 1 traveled back up to Ohio, but now a seasoned moon traveler ready to participate in more testing in support of future Artemis missions. I went back up there as well, this time as a test engineer, to help get things ready for another busy year.

While I primarily worked in the Space Environment Complex (formerly the Space Power Facility), this book covers the initial history of the Plum Brook Facility as a whole, then focuses on the Plum Brook Nuclear Reactor Facility. So I didn't get to learn as much about the structure I had worked in but it was still a fascinating read.

The general gist of it is that Plum Brook was once amazing fertile farm land, the government seized it in order to build factories to produce ordnance during World War II, after which it sat abandoned for a few decades, and then was turned over to NACA to help research and develop atomic war planes during the Cold War, a project which was quickly canceled when it was determined to be a significantly more challenging task than initially anticipated, but when NACA transitioned to NASA the facility was then given the task of researching and developing nuclear rockets that would be far more powerful than the chemical Saturn V, until that was cancelled when it became obvious the US had beaten the Soviets in the Space Race and the enthusiasm to keep NASA's budget high waned especially during the ongoing costly Vietnam War.

So without the necessary funding to keep the lights on at the nuclear research reactors, they were shutdown and mothballed with the hope they might one day be re-activated, possibly as early as the 1980s. But as time went on it became increasingly expensive to keep the non-functioning reactors in this suspended state, so eventually in the early 2000s NASA paid significantly more to have them properly and safely decommissioned.

So Plum Brook has experienced a lot of rapid starts and stops in its day.

The reactors themselves were once some off the largest such research facilities in the world and the initial enthusiasm for them was high. Materials science was important, with many types of matter being blasted with radiation to see what could hold up to it. The super crazy thick walls of the Space Environment Complex's vacuum chamber were chosen because of experiments conducted at the nuclear reactor.

One of the materials tested was corn. They just shot corn with radiation to see what would happen. The book only talks about this a tiny little bit, but I'm going to guess they found the answer to be "not much".

As the Plum Brook area was fenced off with security personnel, and the nuclear research was highly secretive, locals often claimed to see UFOs and hear weird noises. So aliens.

It was depressing to read about all of the scientists who worked there being frequently told that their work was important and highly valued, then shortly after Christmas of 1972 being informed during a surprise all-hands meeting the reactors were to be shut down immediately and everyone needed to find new jobs. NASA was no longer in the nuclear research game.

The later chapters discuss how some doctors believed that Sandusky showed higher health concerns than similarly populated cities, pointing fingers at the nuclear research that happened there. There's apparently a lot of debate about this, but nothing conclusive has been shown. It sounds more likely that all of the World War II ordnance work could potentially cause these problems, before there were any environmental or health groups that put checks in place. When I was talking to one of the managers at the hotel I was staying at and told her why I was visiting, she asked me "Do you think that place has caused an increase in cancer around here? I seem to know a lot of people who get it..." so that thought is still on the locals' minds.

So Plum Brook is an interesting footnote of space history that has had to adapt more than once to changing national interests. Fun, though a little technical and dry at times, read!

[Jon Bradley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I purchased my copy of this book used in hardcover from Discover Books in March 2023. I have had this book for over 2 years now, and read it now because of a recent experience. The book deals with a large nuclear research reactor that NASA operated in Ohio. Last month, I got to visit a small research reactor at a nearby university and see it in operation, which was very cool. Hence my interest in tackling this book. The Plum Brook site near Sandusky Ohio came into being just before WW2 when an army explosives plant was built on a huge plot of land. The explosives plant was shut down immediately after the war ended, but the government held onto the site. In the 1950's the USAF began to develop a nuclear-powered airplane, which required a lot of engineering data on what materials could be used to build an airborne nuclear reactor and shield the plane's crew from radiation. So NACA (NASA's predecessor) began work to build a research nuclear reactor at the Plum Brook explosives plant site. When NASA came into being, it took over the work. The research reactor, one of the most powerful ever operated in the US, came online in the early 1960's just as President John Kennedy killed the nuclear airplane project. But the Plum Brook reactor found a new life supporting the efforts to design a nuclear powered rocket for deep space exploration, and it operated until 1973. Then with the end of the Apollo program and changes in NASA's priorities, the nuclear rocket program was scrapped, and Plum Brook was shut down for good. The book covers all phases of the Plum Brook story: starting as farmland, then an explosives plant, then a nuclear research site, then an mothballed nuclear research site, then decommissioning and demolition. The story is sprinkled with recollections from former employees. The facilities which included extensive radioactive materials handling and "hot" laboratories are covered, along with the many experiments conducted. The book seems well researched and is for the most part well written in a style that will hold your attention. I found all of this pretty interesting. If you are interested in the story of NASA's ambitions for a nuclear rocket, this little known piece of NASA history will satisfy. Five out of five stars.