About 1 hour 20 minutes outside of Las Vegas, Nevada is the Nevada Test Site (now called the Nevada National Security Site, or NNSS). Nuclear bomb testing was done here from 1951 to 1992 and my tour guide, who is a retired employee, estimated about 1,000 tests were done in total, although the official numbers are lower.
Some things to know about the tour: there is one tour per month and the dates to sign up are available six months in advance. They are free and they fill up FAST so if you're interested in taking a tour you need to stay on top of when the dates are released. You have to fill out a badging form in advance, which you can find on the website that shows the available tour dates HERE. The tours are also ADA compliant but you must contact them in advance. In my opinion, this is the pinnacle of all Manhattan Project related tours.
Once you sign up and are accepted for a tour you'll receive a confirmation email. When you sign up they ask you to specify which date you want; I said "any" to maximize my chances of getting on a tour and it worked out fine for me.
Closer to the tour date you'll receive an email with multiple attachments outlining the itinerary, acceptable forms of ID, acceptable clothing and a list of prohibited items. On the tour you will have a couple of opportunities to buy food and beverages, but everything is card only, so make sure you bring a debit or credit card.
if you have questions about what you can and can't bring, or about the size and/or color of your bag/purse, you should respond to the email that has all of the documents and ask. It will be helpful, especially if you don't have a car to leave items in. I was ridesharing to the museum and had medication that I needed to have with me. I was concerned about the clear bag requirement because I didn't want anyone to see the medication, and unclear on the size of the bag that was allowed. The person I contacted was very helpful and everything worked out just fine. One other note, there are absolutely no cell phones, smart watches, etc. allowed. If you are in the position I was in with using rideshare (which requires a phone) and not having anywhere to leave the phone, reply to the email and ask for guidance. They will help. Trust me.
You must bring identification - REAL ID driver's license works best. If you have a non-REAL ID driver's license you should also bring a passport or copy of your birth certificate. Once at the museum and checking in, they only asked me for one form of ID, but don't risk it.
Since you can't have your cell phones, and cameras aren't allowed, there are obviously no pictures allowed except for one that the tour guide takes of the group at the National Atomic Testing Museum, and one that the guide takes of the group at the Sedan Crater. So, the other pictures in this blog are all from other sources, but they are pictures of exactly what I saw.
The tour leaves from the National Atomic Testing Museum and you should arrive by 7:30am. You don't return to the museum until about 4:50pm. Although it's about 1 hour 20 minute drive to get to the test site, you spend all day visiting numerous locations. You are transported by a charted bus which has a bathroom on board.
Side note: if you want to check out the National Atomic Testing Museum you can read about my visit HERE.
Upon entering and exiting the test site the bus will be stopped and inspected by military police. They will also come on board and ask to see your badge. This is a badge that is provided to you at the museum when you check in and you must wear it at all times.
Picture courtesy of Wikipedia.
The first stop is at Icecap Ground Zero (GZ) on the Yucca Flat in area 7. It's a partially assembled cabling tower and equipment building that was set to detonate an underground bomb but it never happened because the 1992 Comprehensive Test Ban was signed. You get to go inside the tower which was really cool to see.
Picture courtesy of reviewjournal.com
Then you head on to the Sedan Crater which is also located on the Yucca Flat in area 10. It was formed in 1962 by a 104-kiloton of TNT thermonuclear explosion that was buried 635 ft below ground. It measures 1,280 ft by 320 ft. The picture on the right is of the two group photos I mentioned that the tour guide takes. They impose them like you see below and email it to you a couple of weeks after the tour. There is a port-a-potty at the crater in case you need it. The day that I was there though, it was blown over on its side.
Picture on right courtesy of reviewjournal.com
After the Sedan Crater you stop for lunch in Mercury, Nevada which is in area 23. You eat at the cafeteria that the employees eat at, and it offers a small menu including salad, chicken strips and hamburgers. I'm going to be really honest here, I did not feel welcome. In fact, it felt like we (the tour group) were a major inconvenience to the employees who were eating lunch. The employees making the food however, were friendly.
After lunch you drive by the T-1 Training Area. This was really cool to see. There's a plane that's been broken in half, a strip mall, school bus, cars and part of a train all staged as a town and used for training scenarios. You don't get off the bus at this stop, but they slowed down so that you can take it all in.
Along the drive you also get to see:
The U1a Complex which is an underground laboratory where subcritical experiments are conducted based on the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile.
What looked like miles of trenches where soldiers would hide in for bomb tests to experience what would happen in a war zone where one might be used.
And the Yucca Flat, which is where the majority of testing was done, many of them underground. It spans across areas 2, 4, 7 & 9. There are craters everywhere! The tour guide mentioned that in many cases they had to rebuild the roads because the detonations were bigger then anticipated.
Picture courtesy of Wikipedia.
Another location you drive by are the "VIP" benches where military employees, dignitaries, etc. and other important people would watch atomic bombs detonate. Remember, back in the 1950's atomic bomb detonations were advertised as a form of tourism in Las Vegas, and you could see them from Freemont, so even if you weren't a VIP you could still see them.
Picture courtesy of reviewjournal.com
Next was the Apple II houses in area 1. This was THE place I was most excited to see. This was the site of Operation Teapot in 1955 and the site is called "Survival Town." The intention was to test various building construction types in a nuclear blast as well as the effect on food and mannequins (people). The house in the picture on the right was about 10,500 ft away from ground-zero. You don't get to get off the bus at this site either, but the bus stops so that you can get a better look. At this point I questioned the guide about this, because a quick Google search produces pictures of groups in front of one of these houses. He acknowledged that he knew about those pictures, but that they were private visitor groups and that he was instructed not to take group photos. It was worth a shot. Just watch this YouTube video and you'll see why I was so excited to see this place! https://youtu.be/6mV8K9rN9Iw
Pictures courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
The last stop was to Frenchman Flat in area 5. I mentioned that my tour guide was a retired employee, but what I didn't mention is that he happened to oversee some of the testing done at Frenchman Flat so he was a wealth of information. This is the site of the first continental U.S. nuclear detonation after the 1945 Trinity test. From 1951-1962 there were 14 above ground nuclear tests done here, and one even broke windows in Las Vegas 64 miles away! There were also many more underground tests done as well. The railroad trestle pictured below is the only one of three still standing from the Encore blast which was 2,200 ft away. The bank vault pictured below was part of the Priscilla test in 1957. There are numerous other structures in this area as well that are partially standing, or just rubble. You do get to get off the bus for a few minutes right next to the railroad trestle and walk around for a few minutes (within a very small area of course).
Pictures courtesy of reviewjournal.com
After Frenchman Flat it was time to head back to Vegas. Along the drive there and back the tour guide, and occasionally the bus driver talk about the site and about experiences the tour guide had while working at the site, and they also plays videos to help pass the time. You'll also return the badge you were provided at the museum, but you get to keep the lanyard it was on as a memento. This tour was hands down amazing. I would do it again in a second!
If you want to see and read more about the Nevada Test Site and see some before and after pictures check out this Nevada Test Site Guide issued by the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA):