© 2026

For assistance accessing the Online Public File for KAXE or KBXE, please contact: Steve Neu, IT Engineer, at 800-662-5799.
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Aurora

Danny goes to Adelphi Maryland, site of the world's largest x-ray machine. Named 'aurora', this relic of the cold war is now being dismantled by the Pentagon but at one time, this six-story, 7 thousand ton structure was used to design shields for military equipment by mimicking gamma rays generated by a nuclear bomb. Aurora was considered an important feature of the U.S. defense system and one the Soviet's would've loved to have copied, but were never able to.

Copyright 1996 NPR

Creative Commons License
Our stories may be republished online or in print under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. We ask that you edit only for style or to slightly shorten, provide proper attribution and link to our site. Please see our republishing guidelines for use of any other photos and graphics.