Aircraft Reactor Experiment
The Aircraft Reactor Experiment (ARE) was an experimental nuclear reactor designed to test the feasibility of fluid-fuel, high-temperature, high-power-density reactors for the propulsion of supersonic aircraft. It operated between November 8–12, 1954 at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) with a maximum sustained power of 2.5 megawatts (MW), and generated a total of 96 MW-hours of energy.
Aircraft Reactor Experiment during assembly showing BeO moderator blocks interlaced with circulating fuel tubes
Natural-convection corrosion test loops used during the Aircraft Nuclear Propulsion project to down-select workable fuel/material combinations
Aircraft Reactor Experiment full-scale mockup with clear tubes. Used to shake down filling and draining processes at low temperature
The molten salt fuel pump used in the Aircraft Reactor Experiment
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) is a federally funded research and development center in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1943, the laboratory is now sponsored by the United States Department of Energy and administered by UT–Battelle, LLC.
Aerial view of ORNL's main campus in 2014
Workers in 1943 loading uranium slugs into the X-10 Graphite Reactor (now a National Historic Landmark)
The core of the Molten Salt Reactor Experiment
Cayce Pentecost, Lyndon B. Johnson, Buford Ellington and Albert Gore Sr. operating mechanical hands at a hot cell at Oak Ridge, on October 19, 1958.
