Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory
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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 Navy and United States Department of Energy, responsible for the research, design, construction, operation, and maintenance of U.S. nuclear-powered warships. It is operated for the Department of Energy by KAPL, Inc., which is owned by Lockheed Martin. KAPL was one of the first laboratories to conduct research on obtaining useable power from nuclear reactors.
KAPL operates two sites in the Schenectady, New York area: the Knolls site in Niskayuna and the Kenneth A. Kesselring site in West Milton. Niskayuna is the primary site where the mission is the design and development of naval propulsion plants and reactor cores. The Kesselring site operates land-based prototypes of shipboard reactor plants and trains 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 shipyards in the states of California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maine, Virginia, and Washington.
On May 15, 1946, KAPL began with a contract between General Electric 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 energy for generating electricity. 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 Laboratory, the Argonne National Laboratory, and others resulted in the launching of the worlds first nuclear-powered submarine, the USS Nautilus on January 21, 1954.
KAPL did work for multiple government programs in the 1940s and 1950s, including the Manhattan Project.
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 nuclides and 580 isomers was developed at KAPL. This chart is a necessity for students and professionals in nuclear physics, chemistry, engineering, and medicine around the world. The Chart has been compiled, edited and periodically revised by KAPL scientists since 1956.
KAPL has two computers listed on the TOP500 List (2005) of supercomputers in the world.
