The PULSTAR is used for a variety of purposes, including training and research. The reactor is located in Burlington Engineering laboratories on NCSU's main campus. This facility was built to house the first reactor and then expanded and renamed when the PULSTAR was built. The current reactor is one of two PULSTAR reactors built, and the only one still in operation. The other reactor was a 2 MW reactor at the State University of New York at Buffalo. It went critical in 1964 and was decommissioned in 1994.