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Nevada Test Site
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The Nevada Test Site is a United States Department of Energy reservation located in Nye County, Nevada, about 65 miles (105 km) northwest of the City of Las Vegas, near . Formerly known as the Nevada Proving Ground, the site, established on January 11, 1951, for the testing of nuclear devices, is composed of approximately 1,350 square miles (3,500 km²) of desert and mountainous terrain. Nuclear testing at the Nevada Test Site began with a one-kiloton (4 terajoule) bomb dropped on Frenchman Flat on January 27, 1951.
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The Nevada Test Site is a United States Department of Energy reservation located in Nye County, Nevada, about 65 miles (105 km) northwest of the City of Las Vegas, near . Formerly known as the Nevada Proving Ground, the site, established on January 11, 1951, for the testing of nuclear devices, is composed of approximately 1,350 square miles (3,500 km²) of desert and mountainous terrain. Nuclear testing at the Nevada Test Site began with a one-kiloton (4 terajoule) bomb dropped on Frenchman Flat on January 27, 1951. Many of the iconic images of the nuclear era come from NTS.
Quick facts
The Nevada Test Site has:
- 28 Areas
- 1,100 buildings
- 400 miles (643 km) paved roads
- 300 miles (482 km) unpaved roads
- 10 heliports
- 2 airstrips
History
19511992
Between 1951 and 1992, there were a total of 928 announced nuclear tests at Nevada Test Site. Of those, 828 were underground. (Sixty-two of the underground tests included multiple, simultaneous nuclear detonations, adding 93 detonations and bringing the total number of NTS nuclear detonations to 1,021, of which 921 were underground.) The site is covered with subsidence craters from the testing. The Nevada Test Site was the primary testing location of American nuclear devices; 126 tests were conducted elsewhere (many at the Pacific Proving Grounds in the Marshall Islands).
During the 1950s, the mushroom cloud from these tests could be seen for almost in either direction, including the city of Las Vegas, where the tests became tourist attractions. Americans headed for Las Vegas to witness the distant mushroom clouds that could be seen from the downtown hotels.
On July 17, 1962, the test shot "Little Feller I" of Operation Sunbeam became the last atmospheric test detonation at the Nevada Test Site. Underground testing of weapons continued until September 23, 1992, and although the United States did not ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, the articles of the treaty are nevertheless honored and further tests have not occurred. Tests not involving the full creation of a critical mass (subcritical testing) continue.
One notable test shot was the "Sedan" shot of Operation Storax on July 6 1962, a 104 kiloton shot for the Operation Plowshare which sought to prove that nuclear weapons could be used for peaceful means in creating bays or canalsit created a crater 1,280 feet (390 m) wide and 320 feet (100 m) deep that can still be seen today. While most of the larger tests were conducted elsewhere, NTS was home to tests in the 500 kiloton to 1 megaton (2 to 4 petajoule) range, which caused noticeable seismic effects in Las Vegas.
19922007
The site was scheduled to be used to conduct the testing of a 1,100-ton conventional explosive in an operation known as Divine Strake in June 2006. The bomb is a possible alternative to nuclear bunker busters, which Congress has been reluctant to fund, despite support from President Bush. However, after objection from Nevada and Utah members of Congress, the operation was postponed until 2007. On 22 February 2007 the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) officially canceled the experiment.
Destruction and Survivability testing
NTS also performed "piggyback" testing of effects of nuclear detonation during the above-ground tests. Vehicles, shelters, utility stations and other structures were placed at various distances from the "Ground Zero" detonation point of each weapon.
Homes and commercial buildings were built to standards typical of American and European cities. Other structures included military fortifications (of types used by both NATO and the Warsaw Pact), civil defense and "backyard" shelters. In a typical test, several buildings might be built using the same plan, with different types of paint, landscaping and cleanliness of yards, wall angles or distances in relation to Ground Zero. Mannequins were placed in and around vehicles and buildings.
High-speed cameras were placed in protected locations, thus to capture effects of radiation and shock waves. Typical imagery from these cameras shows paint boiling off of the buildings, which then are pushed away from Ground Zero by the shock wave before being drawn toward the detonation by the suction caused by the climbing mushroom cloud.
This testing allowed the development of guidelines, distributed to the public, to increase the likelihood of survival in case of air- or spaceborne nuclear attack. This information has again become important, with the increasing possibility of terrorism with nuclear or radioactive weaponry.
Protests and demonstrations
From 1986 through 1994, two years after the United States put full-scale nuclear weapons testing on hold indefinitely, at least 536 demonstrations were held at the test site involving 37,488 participants and 15,740 arrests, according to government records.
American Peace Test (APT) and Nevada Desert Experience (NDE) held most of these. In March 1988, APT held an event where more than 8000 people attended a ten-day action to "Reclaim the Test Site", where nearly 3000 people were arrested with more than 1200 in one day. This set a record for most civil disobedience arrests in a single protest. American Peace Test was collectively run by a group of individuals residing in Las Vegas, but leadership for the group was national. It originated with a small group of people who were active in the National Nuclear Weapons Freeze. APT was a breakaway organization beginning in 1986, with first public events held in 1987.
In the years that followed 1994, Shundahai Network in cooperation with Nevada Desert Experience and Corbin Harney continued the protests of the government's continued nuclear weapons work and also staged efforts to stop a repository for highly radioactive waste adjacent to the test site at Yucca Mountain, northwest of Las Vegas.
NTS today
As of 2004, the test site offers public tours on approximately a monthly basis, although the taking of souvenir material is prohibited. Additionally, image taking and communication devices are prohibited.
While there are no longer any explosive tests of nuclear weapons at the site, there is still subcritical testing, used to determine the viability of the United States' aging nuclear arsenal. Additionally, the site is the location of the Area 5 Radioactive Waste Management Complex, which sorts and stores low-level radioactive waste that is not transuranic and has a half life of no greater than 20 years. Bechtel ran this complex until 2006. Several other companies won the latest bid for the contract. They then combined (formed) a new company called National Security Technologies. Interestingly, this new company has AECOM as part of the team. AECOM, known earlier as Holmes and Narver, held the Nevada Test Site contract for many, many years before Bechtel had it.
Located at the ground zero for the Operation Teapot nuclear test is the Transportation Incident Exercise Site, which replicates multiple terrorist radiological incidents with train, plane, automobile, truck, and helicopter props.
Landmarks and geography
The town of Mercury, Nevada is located on the grounds of the NTS, and at one time housed contingents from Los Alamos National Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and Sandia National Laboratories. Area 51 and the proposed high-level nuclear waste storage facility at Yucca Mountain are located nearby. The BREN Tower, a high guyed tower originally for radiation experiments with an unshielded reactor simulating the amounts of radiation received by survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, is located in the NTS at Jackass Flats.
Cancer and test site
In a report by the National Cancer Institute, released in 1997, it was determined that ninety atmospheric tests at the Nevada Test Site (NTS) deposited high levels of radioactive iodine-131 (5.5 exabecquerels) across a large portion of the contiguous United States, especially in the years 1952, 1953, 1955, and 1957doses large enough, they determined, to produce 10,000 to 75,000 cases of thyroid cancer. The Radiation Exposure Compensation Act of 1990 allowed for people living downwind of NTS for at least two years in particular Nevada, Arizona or Utah counties, between January 21, 1951 October 31, 1958 or June 30, 1962 July 31, 1962, and suffering from certain cancers or other serious illnesses deemed to have been caused by fallout exposure to receive compensation of $50,000. By January 2006, over 10,500 claims had been approved, and around 3,000 denied, for a total amount of over $525 million in compensation dispensed to "downwinders". Uranium miners, mill workers and ore transporters are also eligible for $100,000 compassionate payment under the Radiation Exposure Compensation Program, while $75,000 is the fixed payment amount for workers who were participants in the above-ground nuclear weapons tests.
Nuclear test series carried out at Nevada Test Site
Areas
The Test Site is broken down into areas. Some of the areas and their uses include the following.
Area 12
As of 2008, Area 12 was being used by the Office of Secure Transportation as a secure training facility.
Gallery
Image:Wfm area51 map en.png|Map showing the NTS and other federal territories in southern Nevada
Image:House 1953 Nevada Nuclear Test 5 psi.jpg|Frame House destroyed by nuclear blast on March 17, 1953, Annie shot of Operation Upshot- Knothole, 16 kilotons. Overpressure at house location 5 psi.
Image:US fallout exposure.png|Per capita thyroid doses in the continental United States of Iodine-131 resulting from all exposure routes from all atmospheric nuclear tests conducted at the Nevada Test Site
Image:Nevada Test Site craters.jpg|The Yucca Flat area of the Nevada Test Site is scarred with subsidence craters from underground nuclear testing
Image:NVDOE-UndergroundTesting.jpg|Preparing for an underground test. The emplacement tower lowers the nuclear device into the drilled shaft; the cables run to instruments that record information from the experiment
See also
External links
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