Godiva device

The Lady Godiva device[1] was an unshielded pulsed nuclear reactor[2] originally situated at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), near Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Specifically, it was used to produce bursts of neutrons and gamma rays for irradiating test samples, and inspired development of Godiva-like reactors.

[a] The radiation source within the Godiva device was a fissile metallic mass (usually highly enriched 235U),[3] about 11.8 inches (30 cm) in diameter.

[4][5] In 1959, Los Alamos agreed to make Godiva II available to DOD contractors free of charge for two days each month, acknowledging its unique facility for radiation tests.

[6] Godiva's success in creating intense bursts spurred development of similar pulsed reactors, which also suffered accidental excursions, for example: 28 May 1965 at the White Sands Missile Range (parts were thrown 15 feet (4.6 m));[7] and 6 September 1968 at the Aberdeen Proving Ground (middle melted, disks warped and bolts stretched).

Complex scientific apparatus with metal frame surrounding three sections of a sphere held in the center by a system of rods, and separated vertically from one another so as to form a sphere when brought together
Experimenters produced bursts of gamma rays and neutrons by assembling Godiva I's three parts and dropping a burst rod through the center. This image shows it in the safe, scrammed, state.
A cylindrical wire cage encloses the spherical uranium mass at the top of this image of Godiva II.