Research and test reactors, critical assemblies and prototypes at this site, as listed in the IAEA Research Reactor Database: type, thermal power, first criticality, shutdown date, current status and what each is used for.
2 reactors: 2 decommissioned.
Reactor
Type
Thermal Power
First Criticality
Shutdown
Status
Used For
PBR Plum Brook Reactor
Tank
60 MWt
1961-01-01
Decommissioned
materials testing
PBMUR Plum Brook Mockup Reactor
Pool
1 kWt
1963-01-01
Decommissioned
materials testing
Source: IAEA Research Reactor Database (RRDB), as of 2026-10-13.
Active nuclear industry job listings in OH from the NukeWorker job board. Click a job title for full details, or click the header to search all jobs in this state.
Per diem covers lodging and meals & incidental expenses (M&IE) for government and contractor travel near this facility. Rates are from GSA for FY 2027. Lodging rates vary by month — click "Show Monthly" to see the breakdown.
Maximum state unemployment insurance benefits for OH. Actual benefits depend on your earnings history and may be lower than the maximum. Data as of Jan 2026.
Interactive satellite map showing the facility's geographic location. Marker color indicates current status: green for online, red for offline, orange for reduced power. Click the header to open in Google Maps satellite view.
41.3758, -82.6546
Location & Contact
?
Physical address, phone number, and website for this facility. Use the directions link to get driving directions via Google Maps.
Community ratings from NukeWorker members. Vote to share your experience working at this facility. Score uses a Bayesian average that accounts for vote count — facilities with few votes are pulled toward the fleet average, so rankings reflect confidence, not just raw percentages.
Written by NukeWorker from public records: facts that do not change. Operator, status and capacity come from the live data elsewhere on this page. Sources: Wikipedia: Plum Brook Reactor; Wikipedia: NASA Glenn Research Center (Plum Brook Station); Federal Register notice on Plum Brook Reactor Facility (2012-10-17).
Plum Brook Station is a NASA test site of about 6,400 acres in southern Erie County, Ohio, near Sandusky, roughly 50 miles from the Cleveland campus of NASA's Lewis (later Glenn) Research Center. Congress renamed it the Neil A. Armstrong Test Facility in a law signed on December 30, 2020.
Read more
The station's nuclear work centered on the Plum Brook Reactor, a 60-megawatt water-cooled and water-moderated test reactor built for space-related research, including nuclear propulsion. Construction began in 1958, and the reactor first went critical on June 14, 1961. A smaller 100-kilowatt mock-up reactor operated from 1963 to 1973. The main reactor was shut down on January 5, 1973, and its fuel was shipped off site. Decommissioning ran for many years, and the last reactor structure was demolished in May 2012.
![Internals Removal](https://www.nukeworker.com/pictures/albums/userpics/12116/thumb_main-2.jpg "Internals Removal
All work was performed dry because of the condition of the reactor tank and the lack of water processing on the site. All the work on the internals was done remotely until dose levels allowed the final pieces to be removed hands on. Dose levels prohibited using standard long handle tools from a platform. Instead, operators were positioned 20-feet (6-meters) above the work and 6-feet (2-meters) from the edge. Although a shield was used it's ALARA benefit was to keep the operators outside of the gamma "plume" that was exiting the vessel opening.
2284 views")
