Clementine (nuclear Reactor)

Clementine (nuclear Reactor)

Clementine was the code name for the world's first fast neutron nuclear reactor. It was an experimental scale reactor. The maximum output was 25 kW and was fueled by plutonium and cooled by liquid mercury. Clementine was located at Los Alamos National Laboratory in Los Alamos, New Mexico. Clementine was designed and built in 1945-46 and first achieved criticality in 1946 and full power in 1949. The reactor was named after the song "Oh My Darling, Clementine." The similarities to the song include that the reactor location was a deep canyon and the reactor operators were themselves 49'ers as 49 (last digits of element 94, isotope 239) was one of the code names for plutonium at the time.

The primary goal of Clementine was to determine nuclear properties of materials for nuclear weapons research after the Manhattan project. A number of other experiments were performed at the reactor, including investigation of the feasibility of civilian breeder reactors, and measuring neutron cross sections of various materials.