Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory (KAPL) is a research and development facility dedicated to the support of the US Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program — a joint program of the
United States NavyThe United States Navy is the sea branch of the U.S. Armed Forces. It is one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. As of 31 December 2008, the U.S. Navy had about 331,682 personnel on active duty and 124,000 in the Navy Reserve. It operates 283 ships in active service and more than...
and
United States Department of EnergyThe United States Department of Energy is a Cabinet-level department of the United States government concerned with the United States' policies regarding energy and safety in handling nuclear material...
, responsible for the research, design, construction, operation, and maintenance of U.S. nuclear-powered warships. KAPL, as well as
Bettis Atomic Power LaboratoryBettis Atomic Power Laboratory is a U.S. Government-owned, contractor-operated research and development facility located in West Mifflin, Pennsylvania. It solely focuses on the design and development of nuclear power for the U.S...
, is currently managed and operated by Bechtel Marine Propulsion Corporation, a wholly-owned subsidiary of
Bechtel National Incorporated Bechtel Corporation is the largest engineering company in the United States, ranking as the 7th-largest privately owned company in the U.S. With headquarters in San Francisco, Bechtel had 44,000 employees as of 2009 working on projects in nearly 50 countries with $31.4 billion in revenue.Bechtel...
.
Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory (KAPL) is a research and development facility dedicated to the support of the US Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program — a joint program of the
United States NavyThe United States Navy is the sea branch of the U.S. Armed Forces. It is one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. As of 31 December 2008, the U.S. Navy had about 331,682 personnel on active duty and 124,000 in the Navy Reserve. It operates 283 ships in active service and more than...
and
United States Department of EnergyThe United States Department of Energy is a Cabinet-level department of the United States government concerned with the United States' policies regarding energy and safety in handling nuclear material...
, responsible for the research, design, construction, operation, and maintenance of U.S. nuclear-powered warships. KAPL, as well as
Bettis Atomic Power LaboratoryBettis Atomic Power Laboratory is a U.S. Government-owned, contractor-operated research and development facility located in West Mifflin, Pennsylvania. It solely focuses on the design and development of nuclear power for the U.S...
, is currently managed and operated by Bechtel Marine Propulsion Corporation, a wholly-owned subsidiary of
Bechtel National Incorporated Bechtel Corporation is the largest engineering company in the United States, ranking as the 7th-largest privately owned company in the U.S. With headquarters in San Francisco, Bechtel had 44,000 employees as of 2009 working on projects in nearly 50 countries with $31.4 billion in revenue.Bechtel...
. The previous operating contractor of KAPL was
Lockheed MartinLockheed Martin is a multinational aerospace manufacturer, global security and advanced technology company formed in 1995 by the merger of Lockheed with Martin Marietta. It is headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, in the Washington Metropolitan Area. Lockheed Martin employs 146,000 people...
. KAPL's original contractor was
General ElectricThe General Electric Company, or GE , is a multinational American technology and services conglomerate incorporated in the State of New York. In 2009, Forbes ranked GE as the world's largest company...
. KAPL was one of the first laboratories to conduct research on obtaining usable power from
nuclear reactorA nuclear reactor is a device in which nuclear chain reactions are initiated, controlled, and sustained at a steady rate.The most significant use of nuclear reactors is as an energy source for the generation of electrical power and for the power in some ships...
s.
KAPL operates two sites in the
SchenectadySchenectady is a city in Schenectady County, New York, United States, of which it is the county seat. As of the 2000 census, the city had a population of 61,821, making it the ninth-largest city in New York...
,
New YorkNew York is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous. The state is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
area: the Knolls site in Niskayuna and the Kenneth A. Kesselring site in
West MiltonMilton is a town in Saratoga County, New York, USA. The population was 17,103 at the 2000 census. Some believe that the town was named after the poet, John Milton, while other sources state that it is a shortening of "Mill-town" for the early mill activity....
. Niskayuna is the primary site for the KAPL, focusing on the design and development of naval propulsion plants and reactor cores. The West Milton site operates land-based prototypes of shipboard reactor plants. This site is also used to train officers and enlisted personnel for the U.S. Navy's fleet of nuclear powered vessels. KAPL employs more than 2,600 people at these sites and others, mostly
shipyardShipyards and dockyards are places which repair and build ships. These can be yachts, military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships. Dockyards are sometimes more associated with maintenance and basing activities than shipyards, which are sometimes associated more with initial...
s in the states of
CaliforniaCalifornia is the most populous state in the United States, and the third largest by area. California is the second most populous sub-national entity in the Americas, behind only São Paulo, Brazil...
,
ConnecticutConnecticut is a state in the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and New York to the west and south ....
,
HawaiiHawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states, and is the only state made up entirely of islands. It is located on an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of Australia. The state was admitted to the Union on August...
,
MaineThe State of Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordering the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast, New Hampshire to the southwest, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is the northernmost portion of...
,
VirginiaThe Commonwealth of Virginia is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" because it is the birthplace of eight U.S. presidents. The geography and climate of the state are shaped by the Blue...
, and
WashingtonWashington is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. Washington was carved out of the western part of Washington Territory which had been ceded by Britain in 1846 by the Oregon Treaty as settlement of the Oregon Boundary Dispute. It was admitted to the Union as the...
.
In 2006 KAPL achieved full remediation of the S1C Prototype Reactor site located in
Windsor, ConnecticutWindsor is a town in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States, and was the first English settlement in the state. It lies on the northern border of Connecticut's capital, Hartford. The population was estimated at 28,778 in 2005....
. The S1C site remedial action was declared to be complete by the Connecticut
Department of Environmental ProtectionDepartment of Environmental Protection is a name used by several states in the United States of America for the agency charged with proposing and enforcing environmental law...
in October of 2006. KAPL had taken over operation of the S1C Prototype in the 1960s after expiration of the Navy's original contract with
Combustion EngineeringCombustion Engineering was an innovative American engineering firm and leading firm in the development of power systems in the United States with approximately 30,000 employees in about a dozen states at its peak. Headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, C-E owned over two dozen other companies...
.
On May 15, 1946, KAPL began with a contract between
General ElectricThe General Electric Company, or GE , is a multinational American technology and services conglomerate incorporated in the State of New York. In 2009, Forbes ranked GE as the world's largest company...
and the U.S. Government. KAPL's purpose in 1946 was to conduct nuclear research and development, including work on the design of a plant that would use
nuclear energyNuclear energy is released by the splitting or merging together of the nuclei of atom. The conversion of nuclear mass to energy is consistent with the mass-energy equivalence formula ΔE = Δm.c², in which ΔE = energy release, Δm = mass defect, and c = the speed of light in a vacuum...
for generating
electricityElectricity is a general term that encompasses a variety of phenomena resulting from the presence and flow of electric charge...
. In 1950, the nuclear power plant project was converted to a Naval Nuclear Propulsion project. A few years later this work, combined with that of
Bettis Atomic Power LaboratoryBettis Atomic Power Laboratory is a U.S. Government-owned, contractor-operated research and development facility located in West Mifflin, Pennsylvania. It solely focuses on the design and development of nuclear power for the U.S...
, the
Argonne National LaboratoryArgonne National Laboratory is one of the United States Department of Energy's oldest and largest science and engineering research national laboratories and is the largest in size in the Midwest . The laboratory is managed by UChicago Argonne, LLC, which is composed of the University of Chicago and...
, and others resulted in the launching of the world's first nuclear-powered
submarineA submarine is a watercraft capable of independent operation below the surface of the water. It differs from a submersible, which has only limited underwater capability...
, the
USS NautilusUSS Nautilus was the world's first operational nuclear-powered submarine and the first vessel to complete a submerged transit across the North Pole....
on January 21 1954.
KAPL did work for multiple government programs in the 1940s and 1950s, including the
Manhattan ProjectThe Manhattan Project was the codename for a project conducted during World War II to develop the first atomic bomb. The project was led by the United States, and included scientists from Denmark, The United Kingdom and Canada...
.
The Chart of the Nuclides, containing information such as masses, relative abundances, half-lives, neutron cross sections, and decay properties for more than 3,100
nuclideA nuclide is an atomic nucleus characterized by its specific constitution, i.e., by its number of protons, its number of neutrons, and its energy content...
s and 580 isomers was developed at KAPL. This chart is a necessity for students and professionals in
nuclear physicsNuclear physics is the field of physics that studies the building blocks and interactions of atomic nuclei.The most commonly known applications of nuclear physics are nuclear power and nuclear weapons, but the research has provided wider applications, including those in medicine , materials...
,
chemistryChemistry is the science concerned with the composition, behavior, structure, and properties of matter, as well as the changes it undergoes during chemical reactions...
,
engineeringEngineering is the discipline, art and profession of acquiring and applying technical, scientific and mathematical knowledge to design and implement materials, structures, machines, devices, systems, and processes that safely realize a desired objective or inventions.The American Engineers' Council...
, and
medicineMedicine is the art and science of healing. It encompasses a range of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....
around the world. The Chart has been compiled, edited and periodically revised by KAPL scientists since 1956.
KAPL has one computer listed on the
TOP500The TOP500 project ranks and details the 500 most powerful known computer systems in the world. The project was started in 1993 and publishes an updated list of the supercomputers twice a year...
list of
supercomputerA supercomputer is a computer that is at the frontline of current processing capacity, particularly speed of calculation. Supercomputers were introduced in the 1960s and were designed primarily by Seymour Cray at Control Data Corporation , and led the market into the 1970s until Cray left to form...
s in the world.
External links