Nevada National Security Site through the years — PHOTOS

"Diablo" was fired on July 15, 1957, at the Nevada Test Site from a 500 foot tower. It had a yield of 17 kilotons. (U.S. Department of Energy)

"Priscilla" at Frenchmen's Flat on the Nevada Test Site (now known as the Nevada National Security Site) on June 24, 1957. (File/Las Vegas Review-Journal)

The bank vault that endured the June 24, 1957 Priscilla shot at the Nevada Test Site stands Jan. 11 in an ice-covered, shallow pond at Frenchman Flat on Jan. 11, 2011. (Las Vegas Review-Journal)

A boiling column of smoke rises in the distance seven miles away from one of the army's 280-mm rifles which fired the first atomic artillery shell in history at Las Vegas, Nev., on May 25, 1953. The test on Frenchman flat was termed a success by the department of defense, which said the shell burst with precision accuracy over the designated target where railroad cars, trees, bridges and other equipment was located. (AP Photo)

This early photo shows an atomic bomb test at what was then called the Nevada Proving Grounds, later the Nevada Test Site. The first atomic test in the United States, after New Mexico's Trinity explosion in 1945, was on January 27, 1951 at Frenchman Flats, Nevada. (AP Photo)

A cloud of dirt and debris created by a 104-kiloton nuclear explosion is seen in this image from a video released by the Department of Energy in 1997 in Washington. The "Project Sedan" blast displaced more than 12 million tons of earth and left a 1,280-foot-diameter crater in the desert floor at the Nevada Test Site July 6, 1962. (AP Photo/DOE)

A nuclear reactor sitting on a test cell pad prior to preliminary tests at the Nevada Test Site (circa 1968). This Phoebus 2 design was part of the Rover project to develop a nuclear-propelled rocket capable of interplanetary travel. (Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory)

A nuclear explosive and diagnostic canister for a test named "Handley" is lowered down hole at Pahute Mesa in the Northwestern corner of the Nevada Test Site. Pahute Mesa is used for higher-yield tests because of its remoteness. The Handley test was conducted in March, 1970. (U.S. Department of Energy)

Inside the Control Point at the Nevada Test Site the Test Controller (at table) prepares to conduct a nuclear test. Members of the Test Controller's Advisory Panel (at table) are experts in nuclear weapons, meteorology, radiation, and nuclear medicine. Date unknown. (U.S. Department of Energy)

The radioactive waste management site at Frenchman Flat (area 5) provides surface storage and trench disposal of contaminated materials with low levels of radioactivity at the Nevada Test Site (NTS). (U.S. Department of Energy)

View of the north end of Yucca Flat at the Nevada Test Site. Saucer-shaped craters of varying sizes can be seen. These craters are a result of the detonation of explosives during the testing at the Nevada Test Site. (U.S. Department of Energy)

Subsidence craters from earlier underground tests dot landscape at the Nevada National Security Site. (U.S. Department of Energy)

Mercury, the Main Base Camp at Nevada Test Site (NTS). The camp provides overnight accommodations for more than 950 people. It is a warehousing, communication, repair, fabrication and field administration center. (U.S. Department of Energy)

From left to right: Brian Fitzgerald (U.S.); Jon Hinck (U.S.); Harold Zindler (Germany); Ron Taylor (Great Britain) shortly before entering the Nevada Test Site to protest Nuclear Weapons Explosions near the Nevada Test Site on Jan. 4, 1983. (AP Photo)

Lenten Desert Experience at the Nevada Test Site Protest on April 20, 1984. (Las Vegas Review-Journal)

Decades after the United States began nuclear tesing in the U.S., two bomb shelters, one partially destroyed, sit on Frenchman Flat on Jan. 5, 1995, at the Nevada Test Site in Yucca Flat. (Associated Press)

Nevada Test Site historian Ernie Williams stands on the observation deck for the Sedan crater, created from a 104-kiloton nuclear blast on July 6, 1962, on Jan. 11, 2011. (Associated Press)

Cayenne Engel, left, a research associate at UNLV, and Michael Woody, of the Desert Tortoise Conservation Center take inventory of desert tortoises that are stored in tubs prior releasing them at the Nevada National Security Site Friday, Sept. 21, 2012, in Mercury. (Las Vegas Review-Journal)

A Mobile Detection Assessment Response System (MDARS) robotic vehicle patrols an area of the Nevada National Security Site, located 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas, during a demonstration on Monday, Oct. 25, 2010. (Las Vegas Review-Journal)

Icecap Tower on Dec. 8, 2014. The tower was built in 1992 in preparation for an underground nuclear test that lies mothballed after all full scale nuclear tests were put on hold indefinitley. (Las Vegas Review-Journal)

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By Taylor Lane / Las Vegas Review-Journal

August 17, 2022 - 7:00 am

With the Nevada National Security Site restarting tours in August after a two-year hiatus, here is a look at site and its history from the past 60 years.

The site, formerly known as the Nevada Test Site until 2010, is located 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas, and was the site of over 900 nuclear detonations between 1951 and 1992. It is 1,355 square miles — larger than the state of Rhode Island.

The site, which was once the Las Vegas Bombing and Gunnery Range, was decided on for nuclear testing by the Atomic Energy Commission. In 1955, the site was renamed to the Nevada Test Site.

Atmospheric testing on the site began in 1951, and ended in 1962. Atmospheric tests were banned in August 1963, and tests were moved underground. Eight hundred twenty-three underground tests were conducted before being halted in 1992.

Many exposed to radioactive fallout from above-ground nuclear testing in Nevada, Utah and Arizona, called “downwinders,” have developed cancers after being in proximity to the blasts.

The site has also sparked controversy. More than 536 demonstrations were conducted at the site between 1986 and 1994, leading to almost 16,000 arrests. Astronomer Carl Sagan, singer Kris Kristofferson and six Democratic congresspeople were arrested, according to the University of Nevada, Las Vegas’ Historical Archives.

Today, the site conducts subcritical tests — nuclear tests where no critical mass is formed — in a tunnel complex 900 feet under ground. The test site also manages Stockpile Stewardship programs that protect the remaining nuclear weapons without full-scale testing.

Sites featured on the tour

Mercury

The nearby town of Mercury was a place for workers to spend the night near the base. The town once had many amenities, including a movie theater, health center and bowling alley, according to Travel Nevada.

Frenchman Flat

Frenchman Flat was home to 100 atmospheric nuclear tests that were conducted to examine these weapons’ effects and how the height of burst impacted the weapons. Blasts could be seen from Las Vegas and St. George, Utah.

Sedan Crater

The 1,280-feet wide Sedan Crater was created by the Sedan detonation in 1962 as part of the Plowshare Program. The program, which existed from 1958 to 1975, sought to prove that nuclear explosions could be used for peaceful purposes like dam construction or canals. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1994.

T-1 Training Area

The T-1 Training Area was established in 2004 as a military training center where responders can learn how to respond to radiological/nuclear incidents. Two thousand military and first responders train there annually. Prior to 2004, the site was used for the Apple II nuclear weapons test — a 29-ton detonation that aired on television in 1955.

Icecap Tower

The 152-feet tall Icecap tower was built to be used for an underground nuclear test in 1993. It would’ve been 10 times the size of the bomb that detonated over Hiroshima, Japan, in 1945, according to the test site. The detonation was halted by the Underground Nuclear Testing Moratorium signed on Oct. 3, 1992, but the tower is still standing today.

Contact Taylor Lane at tlane@reviewjournal.com. Follow @tmflane on Twitter.