The Nevada National Security Site (NNSS; N2S2) initially named the Nevada Proving Ground (1951–1955), and later the Nevada Test Site (NTS; 1955–2010)) is a reservation of the United States Department of Energy located in the southeastern portion of Nye County, Nevada, approximately northwest of Las Vegas.
The site was established in December 1950 when President Harry S. Truman authorized the designation of a portion of the Nellis Air Force Gunnery and Bombing Range for testing American nuclear devices by the US Atomic Energy Commission (AEC).
The first atmospheric test was conducted at the site's Frenchman Flat area by the AEC on January 27, 1951. About 928 nuclear tests were conducted here through 1992, when the United States stopped its underground nuclear testing.
The site consists of about of desert and mountainous terrain. Some 1,100 buildings in 28 areas are connected by of paved roads, of unpaved roads, ten heliports, and two airstrips. The site is privately managed and operated by Mission Support and Test Services LLC, a joint venture of Honeywell, Jacobs, and Huntington Ingalls, on behalf of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA).
The mushroom clouds from the 100 atmospheric tests were visible from almost away; they could be seen from the Las Vegas Strip in the early 1950s. Many iconic images at nuclear science museums throughout the United States come from the site.The Nevada Test Site. Emmet Gowin. Foreword by Robert Adams. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2019, pp. 148, 157. (Publ. DOE/NV-209, 1993). Las Vegas experienced noticeable seismic effects. Westerly winds routinely carried the fallout from atmospheric nuclear tests, increasing rates of cancer in Utah and elsewhere, according to a 1984 medical report.Falk, Jim (1982). Global Fission:The Battle Over Nuclear Power, p. 134.
The site has hosted 536 publicized and organized anti-nuclear protests, with 37,488 participants and 15,740 involved in arrests, according to government records.
History
The site was established as a area by President Harry S. Truman on December 18, 1950, within the Nellis Air Force Gunnery and Bombing Range.
1951–1992
The site was the primary testing location of American nuclear devices from 1951 to 1992; 928 announced nuclear tests occurred there. Of those, 828 were undergroundU.S. Department of Energy / Nevada Operations Office, United States Nuclear Tests – July 1945 through September 1992, December 2000, DOE/NV-209 Rev 15 (62 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 contains many subsidence craters from the testing.
The site was the United States' primary location for tests smaller than . One hundred twenty-six tests were conducted elsewhere, including most larger tests. Many of these occurred at the Pacific Proving Grounds in the Marshall Islands.
During the 1950s, the mushroom clouds from atmospheric tests could be seen for almost . The city of Las Vegas experienced noticeable seismic effects, and the distant mushroom clouds, which could be seen from the downtown hotels, became tourist attractions. The last atmospheric test detonation at the site was "Little Feller I" of Operation Sunbeam, on July 17, 1962.
Although the United States did not ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, it honors the articles of the treaty, and underground testing of weapons ended as of September 23, 1992. Subcritical tests not involving a critical mass continued.
One notable test shot was the "Sedan" shot of Operation Storax on July 6, 1962, a shot for Operation Plowshare, which sought to prove that nuclear weapons could be used for peaceful means in creating bays or canals. It created a crater 1,280 feet (390 m) wide and 320 feet (100 m) deep.
1992–present More than 27 subcritical tests have been conducted at the site.
In 2018, the State of Nevada sued the federal government to block a plan to ship "more than a metric ton" of plutonium to the site for temporary storage.
In 2022, the government acknowledged that 13,625 cubic meters of radioactive material conforming to its disposal criteria had been shipped to the site for disposal.
Destruction and survivability testing Testing of the various effects of detonation of nuclear weapons was carried out during above-ground tests. Many kinds of vehicles (ranging from cars to aircraft), nuclear-fallout and standard bomb-shelters, public-utility stations and other building structures and equipment were placed at measured distances away from "ground zero", the spot on the surface immediately under or over the center of the blast. Operation Cue tested civil defense measures. Such civilian and commercial effects testing was done with many of the atomic tests of Operation Greenhouse on Eniwetok Atoll, Operation Upshot-Knothole and Operation Teapot at the site.
Homes and commercial buildings of many different types and styles were built to standards typical of American and (less-often) European cities. Other such structures included military fortifications (of types used by both NATO and the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact) and civil-defense as well as "backyard"-type shelters. In such a typical test, several of the same buildings and structures might be built using the same layouts and plans with different types of materials, paints, general landscaping, cleanliness of the surrounding yards, wall-angles or varying distances from ground zero. Mannequins were placed in and around the test vehicles and buildings, aside from some left out in the open, for testing clothing and shock effects.
High-speed cameras were placed in protected locations to capture effects of radiation and shock waves. Typical imagery from these cameras shows paint boiling off the buildings, which are then pushed violently away from ground zero by the shock wave before being drawn toward the detonation by the suction caused by the climbing mushroom cloud. Footage from these cameras has become iconic, used in various media and available in the public domain.
This testing allowed the development of Civil Defense guidelines, distributed to the public, to increase the likelihood of survival in case of air- or spaceborne nuclear attack.
Environmental impact Each of the below-ground explosions—some as deep as 5,000 feet (1.5 km)—vaporized a large chamber, leaving a cavity filled with radioactive rubble. About a third of the tests were conducted directly in aquifers, and others were hundreds or thousands of feet below the water table.Ralph Vartabedian. Nuclear scars: Tainted water runs beneath Nevada desert Los Angeles Times, November 13, 2009.
When underground explosions ended in 1992, the Department of Energy estimated that more than of radioactivity remained in the environment at that time, making the site one of the most contaminated locations in the United States. In the most seriously affected zones, the concentration of radioactivity in groundwater reaches millions of picocuries per liter. (The federal standard for drinking water is 20 picocuries per liter (0.74 Bq/L).) Although radioactivity levels in the water continue to decline over time, the longer-lived isotopes like plutonium or uranium could pose risks for thousands of years.
The Department of Energy has more than 48 monitoring wells at the site. Because the contaminated water poses no immediate health threat, the department ranked the site as low priority for clean-up. In 2009, tritium with a half-life of 12.3 years was first detected in groundwater off-site in Pahute Mesa, near the locations of the 1968 Benham and 1975 Tybo tests.
The DOE issues an annual environmental monitoring report containing data from the monitoring wells both on and off site.
Janice C. Beatley started to study the botany of the Nevada test site in 1962 when she created 68 study sites. The intention had been to study the effect of radiation on the plants but this plan had to be changed when the United States abandoned atmospheric testing in 1963. The sites however became important because they recorded long term change through 1980. Much of her data was never published; however it was all transferred to the United States Geological Survey after her death. It was "an ideal place to conduct long-term ecosystem research."
Protests and demonstrations
In 1983, four Greenpeace activists made the first incursion into the site of an active test. Two American men, one from West Germany and one from the United Kingdom hiked 30 miles on foot to hide in the desert near ground zero at Yucca Flats. The four evaded capture for a week with the stated objective of delaying the test, and were charged with trespassing.
From 1986 through 1994, two years after the United States ended nuclear weapons testing, 536 demonstrations were held at the site involving 37,488 participants and 15,740 arrests, according to government records.
In 1986, a coalition of organizations including Greenpeace sent protestors into Frenchman's Flat.
On February 5, 1987, more than 400 people were arrested trying to enter the site after nearly 2,000 demonstrators held a rally to protest nuclear weapons testing. Those arrested included the astronomer Carl Sagan and the actors Kris Kristofferson, Martin Sheen, and Robert Blake. Five Democratic members of Congress attended the rally: Thomas J. Downey, Mike Lowry, Jim Bates, Leon E. Panetta, and Barbara Boxer.Robert Lindsey. 438 Protesters are Arrested at Nevada Nuclear Test Site New York Times, February 6, 1987.
American Peace Test (APT) and Nevada Desert Experience (NDE) held most of these.Political protest and cultural revolution By Barbara Epstein p. 165. In March 1988, APT held an event where more than 8,000 people attended a ten-day action to "Reclaim the Test Site", where nearly 3,000 people were arrested, including more than 1,200 in one day. This set a record for most civil disobedience arrests in a single protest.
On October 12, 1992, an 11-day protest took place at the Test Site. At the invitation of the Western Shoshone Tribe and Corbin Harney, an anti-nuclear activist and spiritual leader for the Newe people, over 2,000 protesters from 12 different countries gathered for "Healing Global Wounds". In their media work, protesters and organizers demanded an end to nuclear weapons testing and return of the test site to the Western Shoshone people. Camped in the desert, participants took part in anti-racism and peaceful civil disobedience trainings. They planned actions and demonstrations, eventually using culverts and other means to enter the Test Site where 530 were arrested by Wackenhut Security forces on charges of trespassing. Full-scale nuclear weapons testing did not resume.
After 1994, Shundahai Network in cooperation with Nevada Desert Experience and Corbin Harney continued the protests of the work at the site and staged efforts to stop a repository for highly radioactive waste adjacent to the test site at nearby Yucca Mountain.
Modern usage
The site continues to be used for nuclear weapons research and development. This includes subcritical testing. These tests are conducted jointly by Los Alamos National Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and the British Atomic Weapons Establishment. A recent one was Ediza (2019), and Nightshade A (2020).
The site offers monthly public tours, often booked months in advance. Visitors are not allowed to bring cameras, binoculars, or cell phones, nor are they permitted to pick up rocks for souvenirs.U.S. DOE/NNSA – Nevada Site Office, Nevada National Security Site Tours