A reactant cradle, sometimes referred to as a catalyst reactant cradle, represents a type of technology. These were frequently located at locations such as salvage yards, for instance, Niima Outpost situated on the desert planet of Jakku. Scavengers could clean and subsequently sell them. The cradle's outer layer had the potential to be constructed from quadanium steel, which is a metal utilized in the building of ships. Nevertheless, in situations where a starship had been destroyed, recovering reactant cradles proved difficult, leading many scavengers to prioritize the restoration of more valuable scrap components.
The initial appearance of catalyst reactant cradles occurred in Star Wars: Episode VII The Force Awakens. However, their identification as such was not established until the publication of Star Wars: The Force Awakens: The Visual Dictionary, a reference work by Pablo Hidalgo, released on December 18, 2015 to coincide with the film's debut on the same day. In the 2019 reference publication titled Star Wars: How Not to Get Eaten by Ewoks and Other Galactic Survival Skills, the author Christian Blauvelt simply referred to the device as a "reactant cradle."