The Plum Brook Reactor Facility was NASA's primary facility for research and development of nuclear energy for space applications including scientific and technical investigations of radiation exposure, nuclear power systems, and spaceflight propulsion. The facility operated from 14 June 1961 to 5 January 1973, and is in the final stages of decommissioning today. The Reactor Facility was located at NASA's Plum Brook Station, in Sandusky, Ohio, which includes several large test facilities. They were built on the site of the former Plum Brook Ordnance Works, which manufactured explosive powder during World War II, and the fertile land is today home to hundreds of species of wildlife, rare forests, and prairies.

More information can be found in NASA's Nuclear Frontier: The Plum Brook Reactor Facility (NASA Historical Monograph SP-2004-4533) and Science in Flux: NASA's Nuclear Program at Plum Brook Station, 1955-2005 (NASA SP-2006-4317).

Other relevant NASA Web sites:
• NASA Headquarters
• NASA History Office
• NASA Image eXchange (NIX)
• NASA Multimedia Gallery
• NASA Human Spaceflight