Been reading about the GNAL -- the Georgia Nuclear Aircraft Laboratory which, sometime soon (if not already) will be at the bottom of a manmade lake.
Shamelessly ripped from SA:
From 1958 to 1971, the area inside that fence was a test site known as the Georgia Nuclear Aircraft Laboratory. On the original plans, it's identified as a "Lethal Fence," meaning deadly force was authorized if anyone crossed it. In the middle of that fenced off area was a 10 megawatt nuclear reactor with no shielding that was used to irradiate military equipment to test the feasibility of building nuclear-powered aircraft, and later to irradiate building materials and surrounding wildlife to determine what to expect and how to rebuild after a nuclear war.
The reactor was held in a pit where you now see a big patch of green grass. It was surrounded by a railroad loop, and rail cars of material were parked at various distances from the pit. Warning sirens would alert personnel to retreat to the large underground complex and the reactor would be hoisted out of the pit and run suspended in the air, usually for minutes or hours, but on several occasions extended runs lasting days were carried out.
Other remaining parts of the site are hot cell building where research on irradiated materials was done, and cooling-off area where rail cars of irradiated material were left to sit for a few days after being irradiated to reduce exposure of personnel to radiation. Both are fenced in and off-limits because radiation levels are elevated, although they're currently only slightly above background level.. The hot cell isn't going anywhere because its walls are 4 feet thick steel-reinforced concrete and it's a lot safer to leave it in one piece .
The underground complex is flooded and entrances are buried under huge piles of dirt, but people have dug them out and explored on many occasions.
The link to that post has a Google Maps image:
http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3370055&userid=0&perpage=40&pagenumber=21#post398813720So my Google searching brought up some great Urbex stuff:
Vintage newsreel:
Insane fucks who dug out one of the tunnels:
http://www.uer.ca/locations/show.asp?locid=29719A wonderful history here:
http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=405686A failed trip report:
http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread230310/pg1A collection of Urbex links on the site:
http://jayntguru.com/wordpress/archives/301Amoung those links is a Youtube channel of a guy who videoed the site:
http://www.youtube.com/user/Ratz667#p/a
