The Aurora Pulsed Radiation Simulator (also known as the Aurora flash x-ray simulator) was a 14 TW flash gamma-ray simulator, designed to simulate the effects of a nuclear weapon's bremsstrahlung, or gamma radiation, pulses on military electronic systems.[1][2] It was built in 1971 by the U.S. Defense Atomic Support Agency (DASA), which eventually became the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).[3]
More than 161 feet (49 m) long and weighing at 1,450 tons, the Aurora Simulator was the first gamma radiation simulator of its size in the world at the time. It was also one of only four large machines in the United States that were built specifically to test complete nuclear weapons packages, with the other three being the Hermes I to III simulators at Sandia Base, New Mexico. Situated at the Harry Diamond Laboratories (which later became a part of the Army Research Laboratory) in Adelphi, Maryland, it was used to test complete weapons electronics packages from the warheads of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) to satellites. After more than 20 years of use during the Cold War, the Aurora Simulator was officially decommissioned and disassembled in 1996.[3]
In 1986, the Aurora facility set the world record for the largest amount of high-power microwave power generated from a virtual cathode oscillator. As a result, HDL was recognized by the American Defense Preparedness Association (ADPA) in 1987.[4]