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Nevada Test Site History
 Following the Trinity test and the bombings
of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, military officials still knew very little
about the effects, especially on naval targets, of nuclear weapons.
Accordingly, the Joint Chiefs of Staff requested and received
Presidential approval to conduct a test series during the summer of
1946. The test series, named Crossroads, was conducted at Bikini atoll
in the Marshall Islands, which was far from population centers in the
middle of the Pacific. Pacific testing offered ample protected anchorage
for both a target fleet and support ships, but as a test site, it held
two drawbacks: the distance from the continental United States made
extraordinary logistical demands; and the humid climate created numerous
problems for sophisticated electronic and photographic equipment.
The Nevada Test Site story begins in 1948 after the atomic test
series Operation Sandstone in the Enewetak atoll. Although Sandstone was
successful, logistics, weather, security and safety concerns during the
operation illustrated the need for a continental test site. The
logistical problems associated with transporting, supplying and housing
a nuclear testing task force in the middle of the Pacific were
self-evident. Combined with the communist insurgency in Korea, the need
for a continental test site had become urgent. As a result, the Armed
Forces Special Weapons Project conducted a top secret feasibility study,
named Nutmeg, to search for a continental test site. The study concluded
that the arid-Southwest section of the United States was an ideal
location.
During the initial study in 1948, several site were surveyed and
considered for the establishment of an atomic testing ground, including:
Alamogordo-White Sands, New Mexico; Dugway Proving Ground, Utah; Las
Vegas Bombing and Gunnery Range, Nevada; Central Nevada and Camp Lejeune,
North Carolina. A subsequent study concluded that two general areas in
Nevada, designated as the north site and the south site, met the
criteria for a proving ground. In 1950, a more complete survey of the
south site, amid the Las Vegas Bombing and Gunnery Range, was conducted
and resulted in test officials’ endorsements. In December, the United
States Air Force, landlord of the site, approved the plan to allow the
Atomic Energy Commission to use the range for a proposed series of
continental tests, code named Ranger. On December 18, President Harry
Truman approved the choice. Following the Ranger series, the Atomic
Energy Commission swiftly moved to turn the Nevada Test Site into a
permanent proving ground for nuclear weapons.
Refer to the following Fact Sheets for more information:
Before it was the
Nevada Test Site [ PDF, 284 KB ]
Project Nutmeg
[ PDF, 306 KB ]
United States Nuclear Tests, July 1945 through September 1992
(DOE/NV 209) [ PDF, 900KB ]
Chronological and alphabetical by name all nuclear tests and simultaneous detonations conducted by the United States. Detonation time and locations (latitude, longitude, and surface elevation) are included
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