110
Nevada Test Site, NV
1,021 Explosions
At the Trinity Test Site (Chapter 106), a single nuclear bomb was tested. At the Nevada Test Site, more than 1,000 nuclear explosions were set off between 1951 and 1992. The site consists of over 3,600 square kilometers of dry lake beds and mountains, about 100 kilometers northwest of Las Vegas. Once a month, the U.S. Department of Energy provides a free, day-long tour of the Nevada Test Site’s bomb craters, ground zeros, and test paraphernalia.
The tour covers around 400 kilometers of the nuclear explosion–pockmarked landscape: of the 1,021 nuclear explosions at the Nevada Test Site, only 126 occurred above ground; the rest were underground tests that left the site cratered. The largest crater of all, the Sedan Crater, is the highlight of the tour. It’s almost 400 meters wide and 100 meters deep; see Figure 110-1.
Figure 110-1. The Sedan Crater;
courtesy of the National Nuclear Security Administration/Nevada Site Office
Sedan was created as part of Operation Plowshare, an attempt to use nuclear weapons for peaceful purposes in mining, excavating, and building harbors. Plowshare was not successful, partly because of the amount of radiation created. The Sedan explosion released one of the highest levels of radioactive material into the atmosphere of all the tests performed at the Nevada site. The tour bus stops at the Sedan Crater so that visitors can step outside (briefly, since it’s still emitting a low level of radiation) and view it close up.
Another crater on the tour is the Bilby Crater, which the tour bus drives into. Bilby was created in 1963 and was the first underground test to be felt in Las Vegas. At the center of the crater are the remains of the shaft into which the nuclear bomb was inserted.
The eeriest part of the tour is what remains of the Apple II testing. To test the effects of nuclear weapons on people and property, a fake town was constructed complete with roads, houses, a school, and an electric grid. The houses were populated with dressed mannequins sitting at dinner tables. There was even food on the tables.
Not much is left of Apple II, as it was designed to be blown up, but at least one surviving house, its exterior paint completely stripped and windows blown out, is still standing (see Figure 110-3). Films of the burning and disintegrating buildings were used as part of old civil defense films.
Figure 110-3. A remaining Apple II house; courtesy of Danny Bradury
Live pigs also played a part: at the “Porker Hilton,” they were exposed to explosions to test the effects of nuclear weapons on flesh and bone.
A visit to Frenchman Flat, where atmospheric nuclear tests were performed, including the very first nuclear explosion at the Nevada Test Site, rounds out the tour. This dry lake bed is scattered with material destroyed by nuclear testing, including a bank vault that survived a bomb test named Priscilla.
During the tour, all visitors must wear a radiation-measuring badge, which will be collected at the end. If you were dangerously exposed, the U.S. government will contact you.
Practical Information
Visits to the Nevada Test Site must be booked in advance, and non-U.S. citizens should expect a long wait for approval. The tour is free and can be booked from the U.S. Department of Energy’s website at http://www.nv.doe.gov/nts/.
