Nuclear Test Site
The largest underground nuclear test conducted by the United States, Project Cannikin was one of three underground nuclear tests performed at different places on this 43-mile long island in the Aleutian Chain. This $200 million 1971 test was performed to test an Anti-Ballistic Missile warhead, for...
The Central Nevada Test Site Base Camp is a cluster of small technical buildings, sheds, residences, and an airstrip, with a recently upgraded and lighted runway. It is now used primarily by the Air Force in association with activities at the Nellis Range Complex, such as the threat emitter site...
Faultless was a large (approx. one megaton) underground nuclear experiment conducted in 1968 to test the possibility of developing the area as a second nuclear testing location. The Central Nevada Test Site would have hosted several high-yield nuclear tests associated with antiballistic missile...
The Gasbuggy Nuclear Test Site is the location of a 1967 underground nuclear explosion, conducted to test the viability of using a nuclear device to aid in natural gas extraction. It was part of the Plowshare Program, the program to develop peaceful uses of nuclear weapons, and was the first use of...
The Project Gnome Site is the location of a 1961 underground nuclear test conducted by the Atomic Energy Commission, near Loving, New Mexico. This was the first test in the Plowshare Program, a program to develop peaceful uses for nuclear weapons. The Lawrence Radiation Lab (which later became...
One of three underground nuclear tests performed at different places on this 43-mile long island in the Aleutian Chain. This 1965 test, named Long Shot, consisted of an 85 kiloton yield bomb, detonated at the bottom of a 2,359-foot shaft. The test was one of several in a series, performed at...
One of three underground nuclear tests performed at different places on this 43-mile long island in the Aleutian Chain. This 1969 test, named Milrow, consisted of an 1.2 megaton-yield bomb, detonated at the bottom of a 3,990-foot shaft. The test was part of a calibration program conducted to...
An underground nuclear test took place at this site in 1973, to investigate the possibility of using nuclear explosions to extract natural gas from low grade deposits. The test, the last in the Plowshare Program, called Rio Blanco, was performed by the Atomic Energy Commission and two corporate...
An underground nuclear detonation took place at this site in 1969, to investigate the possibility of using nuclear explosions to extract natural gas from low grade deposits. The test, a Plowshare Program experiment called Project Rulison, was performed by the Atomic Energy Commission and two...
Two nuclear detonations performed in a subterranean salt dome formation in Mississippi, as part of a 1960's Atomic Energy Commission Test. The test program, called Project Dribble, called for creating an underground cavity, using a nuclear bomb to do so, then later detonating a second nuclear...
One of two major underground nuclear tests in Nevada that were performed off the Nevada Test Site. Conducted in 1963, Shoal was an experiment to study earthquake effects. A 12 kiloton bomb was detonated 1,200 feet below the surface. The site now is unmarked and unfenced, though radioactivity...
The Tonopah Test Range is a 525 square mile test facility on the north end of the Air Force's 4,000 square mile Nellis Range Complex in Nevada, and is the principal weapons field test site for Sandia Labs, based in New Mexico. There are major facilities here, including barracks for several hundred...
The site of the world's first nuclear blast, the Trinity shot of the Manhattan Project, is on the north end of the 4,000 square mile White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. The site consists of a fenced area that encloses much of the ground-zero area, with a monument at its center. Though the...