Camera giant Kodak operated a uranium-based nuclear device beneath its laboratory

Kodak's equipment contained about 3.5 pounds of highly enriched uranium (Representational AP photo) For most people, Kodak is a name associated with cameras and photographic film. But for 31 years, the American company had something far less familiar inside its research facility in Rochester, New York: a nuclear device containing highly enriched uranium.The machine began operating in 1975 and remained in use until 2006. Its existence attracted widespread attention only in 2012, years after it had shut down. Now, a report by Popular Mechanics, published on Wednesday, has revisited the unusual facility and explained why the equipment, despite using uranium, was not a self-sustaining nuclear reactor.The machine was about the size of a refrigerator and was kept in a secure underground laboratory. According to the report, it was not being used to produce electricity or develop nuclear weapons. Kodak's scientists, however, used it to examine materials, identify unwanted substances in chemicals, and look inside objects without damaging them.The equipment was known as a californium neutron flux multiplier, or CFX, whose purpose was to produce a supply of neutrons, tiny particles found insi...