October 19, 2004

Sally Harrington
Media Relations Office
216/433-2037
Sally.V.Harrington@nasa.gov

RELEASE: 04-078

NASA GLENN'S PLUM BROOK STATION'S HISTORY AND RESEARCH FEATURED AT THE GLENN
VISITOR CENTER

On Saturday, October 23, and Sunday, October 24, the Visitor Center at
NASA's Glenn Research Center will feature Plum Brook Station, Glenn's
satellite facility located in Perkins Township in Erie County. Young
and old alike will learn about its history as well as the world-class
research facilities and fascinating research that takes place at Plum
Brook. The Visitor Center will be open from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on
Saturday and from 1 to 5 p.m. on Sunday. Admission is free, and it is
wheelchair accessible.

A documentary "Of Ashes and Atoms" will be shown in the Visitor Center
Auditorium at 11 a.m. on Saturday and again on Sunday at 2 p.m. Due
to limited seating in the auditorium, seating will be on a first
come, first served basis. This video tells the history of the Plum
Brook Reactor Facility, one of the first nuclear research reactors
built in the United States and the only one built by NASA. It also
tells the history of the land on which Plum Brook Station is located
in the Firelands region of Northwest Ohio. In addition, historical
artifacts from the facility will be available for viewing.

The Reactor Facility operated from 1962 to 1973 when it was shut down
and placed in a safe, dry storage mode. It is presently being
decommissioned. The process of safely decommissioning the closed
reactor facility and the ongoing monitoring being done for the safety
of the workers, the community and the environment are just two of the
things featured in the displays and fact sheets about the
decommissioning of the closed Reactor Facility.

Richard Kunath, chief of the Plum Brook Management Office, will bring
visitors into the present as he talks about the four active research
facilities. He will be speaking at 1:30 on Saturday and 4 p.m. on
Sunday. Some of the work that has been done at Plum Brook includes
testing of the landing system for the rovers that are presently up on
Mars and the radiators that are in use on the International Space
Station, both done in the Space Power Facility. He also will be
talking about the exciting research that will be happening in the
near future in connection with the Vision for Space Exploration.

Visitors are welcome to walk through the several galleries of the

Visitor Center and are encouraged to come back again in the future.
In addition to the Saturday and Sunday hours mentioned above, the
Visitor Center is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m..

For more information about the Visitor Center, call 216-433-2000 or

visit http://visit.grc.nasa.gov
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