NOTE: NO FURTHER DISCOUNT FOR THIS PRINT PRODUCT--OVERSTOCK SALE -- Significantly reduced list price while supplies last Presents a visual history of the Plum Brook reactor, including numerous images and captions, a narrative history, and selected primary documents. This work culminated in the atomic bomb. After the war, as Plum Brook's ordnance factories went silent, scientists continued their pursuit of nuclear knowledge by constructing test reactors. Timeline included within the Appendices section. Military personnel, especially strategists, leaders and soldiers may be most interested in this volume, students pursuing research about the Plum Brook facility and the land used to house the military's explosives and gun powder. Related products: Building the Bombs: A History of the Nuclear Weapons Complex is available here: https://bookstore.gpo.gov/products/sku/061-000-00968-0 United States Army in World War 2, Special Studies, Manhattan, the Army, and the Atomic Bomb is available here: https://bookstore.gpo.gov/products/sku/008-029-00132-2 Nuclear Weapons Gone Missing : What Does History Teach? is available here: https://bookstore.gpo.gov/search/apachesolr_search/atomic%20bomb

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. NASA SP-2006-4317