Nevada Test Site

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


Nevada Test Site

Location: 65 miles North of Las Vegas, just East of I-95 in the Mojave Desert.

The Official Story: Reacting to high costs to test weapons of mass destruction in the Pacific, President Truman established this Rhode Island-sized test site in 1950. Between 1951 and 1962, 126 weapons tests were conducted.

The Terrible Truth: Routinely, large atomic clouds from the Nevada Test Site blew over nearby communities. For the residents of these towns – now known as “downwinders” – the tests left a legacy of disease, sterility, and death. During the Operation Upshot-Knothole tests held in the spring and early summer of 1953, about 17,000 military personnel took part in a total of 11 nuclear test detonations. Thousands were stationed in trenches within two miles of ground zero, and were ordered to move toward the blast center within an hour of the blast. Soldiers were even ordered to charge ground zero immediately after detonation.

Fun With Atoms: A four-lane road was built to foster tourism at the site, which is also home to Area 51.

While You’re There: You can take a walk through “Survival Town”, realistic sets constructed by the Atomic Energy Commission to measure effects of atomic weapons on animals and various types of buildings. Tours are given quarterly, the next one is May 21, 2003. The site is currently operated by Bechtel Nevada. A Nevada Test Site museum is scheduled to open in Las Vegas in October. Part of the funding for the $12 million project was to come from special Nevada license plates featuring a mushroom cloud. The state cancelled plans for the plate last year.

Quote: “As far as we knew, why, it was really going to help us out, it was really something that our government was doing and it would be for our own good.” – ‘Downwinder’ Rose Mackelprang, from the 1982 book “Killing Our Own”

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate