Annular core research reactor
USA /
New Mexico /
Carnuel /
World
/ USA
/ New Mexico
/ Carnuel
World / United States / New Mexico
military, nuclear reactor
Odd facility 1 is a 2-reactor facility; I spent a week there while I worked for the lab. The inner facility is the SPUR, Sandia Pulse reactor. Plates of enriched uranium, basically, with a negative temperature coefficient. It's used to irradiate military stuff (or used to be, I have no idea when it was last used) as a simulation of an atomic explosion. According to the people who had been there a while, when SPUR fired you could be in the parking lot on the left with your eyes closed, and the blue flashes you'd see were fast neutrons zipping through your eyeballs. Nice, eh? Anyway, SPUR uses 'weapons grade' material, thus the safeguards. None of this was classified when I was there, by the way. The other area inside the main fence is ACRR, (Annular core research reactor), a 2MW toy reactor used for various tests. We used it to play with diffractive optics; fun project. There's also GIF, the gamma irradiation facility, inside the same building. Amusingly, the office building on the left was a minor scandal at the time; major cost overruns.
Nearby cities:
Coordinates: 34°59'53"N 106°32'6"W
- Kirtland Air Force Base (ABQ/KABQ) 10 km
- White Sands Missile Range 132 km
- Holloman Air Force Base 216 km
- Rocket Sled Track - Holloman Air Base 222 km
- NASA White Sands Space Harbor 223 km
- Melrose Air Force Range 260 km
- White Sands Test Facility (WSTF) 272 km
- Camp MacGregor 319 km
- McGregor Range Complex 330 km
- Pantex Plant 449 km
- Joint Use Area 4.5 km
- Mesa del Sol 7.5 km
- Albuquerque International Sunport / Kirtland Air Force Base (ABQ/KABQ) 7.6 km
- University of New Mexico Championship Golf Course AKA Airport Golf Course 10 km
- South Broadway Landfill 10 km
- Valle de Oro - (National Wildlife Refuge) 13 km
- South Valley, New Mexico 13 km
- Isleta Eagle Golf Course 14 km
- Isleta Village Proper, New Mexico 19 km
- Historic Atrisco Land Grant 26 km
Joint Use Area
Mesa del Sol
Albuquerque International Sunport / Kirtland Air Force Base (ABQ/KABQ)
University of New Mexico Championship Golf Course AKA Airport Golf Course
South Broadway Landfill
Valle de Oro - (National Wildlife Refuge)
South Valley, New Mexico
Isleta Eagle Golf Course
Isleta Village Proper, New Mexico
Historic Atrisco Land Grant