Purdue University Reactor Number One
Research reactor in West Lafayette, Indiana, US
The Purdue University Reactor Number One (PUR-1) is a research reactor in West Lafayette, Indiana, United States. It is used primarily for teaching purposes in Purdue University's School of Nuclear Engineering. Built in 1962, the PUR-1 is the only nuclear reactor operating in the US state of Indiana. It was the second reactor installed in Indiana, and was the first critical reactor, after a sub-critical reactor was installed at Valparaiso University in 1958.
Design
In April 1961, Purdue University selected Lockheed Corporation to build its research reactor after twelve companies submitted bids. It was installed underground, three stories beneath the Duncan Annex of Purdue's Electrical Engineering Building. The reactor first achieved criticality on August 30, 1962, and a dedication ceremony was held on September 27 of that year. The construction cost was $125,000.
The PUR-1 was the second nuclear reactor and first critical reactor in Indiana. A third reactor was later installed at the planned Marble Hill Nuclear Power Plant in Jefferson County but was removed when construction of the plant halted in 1984.
The public source identifies “Purdue University Reactor Number One” as research reactor in West Lafayette, Indiana, US. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Purdue, University and Reactor.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 17, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7261000. Authority coordinates are 40.428, -86.911. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1962, 1958, 1961 and 1984.
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This entry incorporates text from “Purdue University Reactor Number One” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.