Meltdown America, abandoned: Inside the eerie NASA base sitting empty for a decade after 57 years of rocket tests and the country's worst nuclear explosion

Santa Susana Field Laboratory, a 2,850-acre site, opened on a craggy plateau in eastern Ventura County in 1948

Colossal structure was once home to nuclear, solar and sodium technology development, and rocket engine testing

In 1959, it was home to US's worst nuclear disaster, when a reactor spewed radioactive gases into the atmosphere

Despite that, scientists conducted nuclear research there until 1988 and was used for rocket engine tests until 2006

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3428028/Inside-eerie-NASA-base-sitting-decade-57-years-rocket-tests-one-nuclear-explosion.html#ixzz3z1hOscRh