Underground nuclear weapons testing

Journal Article · Tue Apr 01 00:00:00 EST 1986 · IEEE Spectrum; (United States)

OSTI ID:5879055

Horgan, J

Beneath a stretch of mesas and bone-dry lake beds some 100 miles north of Las Vegas, Nev., at least 16 nuclear wareheads were detonated last year, releasing enough energy to destroy a dozen major cities. Since 1951 the United States has exploded more than 680 bombs above and below this landscape, broken only by clumps of sagebrush, scraggy grass, and craters. This is the Nevade Test Site, sealed from public trespass by armed guards and barbed wire and protected by warning signs. The Federal site has more square miles than the state of Rhode Island, and more than 5000 people toil here. Most commute from Las Vegas, but some - construction workers or weapons scientists readying an atomic shot - may stay overnight in Mercury, a cluster of buildings just inside the site's entrance. Mercury has temporary housing for 900 people, as well as a restaurant, three cafeterias, a post office, an airstrip, a movie house, and a bowling alley. Signs of Mercury's bigger buildings name the test site's powers that be: the U.S. Department of Energy, the manager of nuclear weapons development; the U.S. Defense Nuclear Agency, which studies the effects of nuclear weapons on military systems; and the three national weapons laboratories - Lawrence Livermore in California and Los Alamos in New Mexico, both of which design warheads; and Sandia in Albuquerque, N.M., which designs fuses, detonators, casings, and other nonnuclear components for the warheads. Several defense contractors - notably Reynolds Electrical and Engineering Corp., the site's prime contractor - also have offices in Mercury. This year the U.S. government will pay these and other organizations about $750 million to conduct underground tests, almost double the budget of five years ago.

• OSTI ID: 5879055
• Journal Information: IEEE Spectrum; (United States), Vol. 23:4
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

45 MILITARY TECHNOLOGY, WEAPONRY, AND NATIONAL DEFENSE
29 ENERGY PLANNING
POLICY AND ECONOMY
NEVADA TEST SITE
REVIEWS
NUCLEAR WEAPONS
PERFORMANCE TESTING
FEDERAL EXPENDITURES
NUCLEAR DETERRENCE
NUCLEAR EXPLOSIONS
UNDERGROUND EXPLOSIONS
DOCUMENT TYPES
EXPLOSIONS
NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
TESTING
US DOE
US ORGANIZATIONS
WEAPONS
450202* - Explosions & Explosives- Nuclear- Weaponry- (-1989)
290600 - Energy Planning & Policy- Nuclear Energy