Georgia Nuclear Aircraft Laboratory

Abandoned hot cell building

The Georgia Nuclear Aircraft Laboratory, also known as AFP No. 67, for Air Force Plant 67 was a United States Air Force test facility located in the Dawson Forest in Dawsonville, Georgia. It was the site of Lockheed's lab for investigating the feasibility of nuclear aircraft. The site was used for irradiating military equipment, as well as the forest to determine the effect of nuclear war, and its effects on wildlife. The area was closed in 1971 and acquired by the city of Atlanta for a second airport, but its topography was determined to be ill-suited for an airport. Documents explaining what went on at the site remain classified. The entrance to the underground portion of the facility is accessible, but it is entirely flooded, except for a few feet of the top level. The only objects left above ground were the concrete foundations on which the buildings and reactors were placed.

For colorful details about the experiments carried out at this facility, see the Epilogue of Atomic Awakenings by James Mahaffey, Pegasus Books, 2009.  The unique characteristic of this reactor was the fact that it was mounted on a piston which would push it vertically from its underground shielded position into the open air above ground where it would irradiate test materials and machinery. Items to be tested were pushed into the irradiation area within the “Lethal Fence” on rail cars.

From the book: “In full form it could kill anything. It even killed things that were not alive, such as landing-gear assemblies and aircraft radio transmitters.”

References

• Dawson Forest City of Atlanta Tract – Then and Now
• Georgia EPD
• When the Cold War Came to Dawsonville
• Dawson Forest - City of Atlanta Tract
• Lockheed Ad

External links

• Historical video footage of Georgia Nuclear Laboratories (AFP No. 67)
• Historical video footage of Georgia Nuclear Laboratories (AFP No. 67) (YouTube)