Online Nevada Encyclopedia

Alan Moore

Nevada Test Site Overview

Formerly the Nevada Proving Grounds, the Nevada Test Site is located in Nye County about sixty-five miles northwest of Las Vegas, and covers approximately 1,375 square miles. The site begins at the town of Mercury in the southeast and ends at Pahute Mesa in the northwest. It borders the Nellis Test and Training Range and Area 51 at Groom Lake, and it contains portions of Yucca Mountain where the federal government has proposed the construction of an underground nuclear waste storage site.

Frenchman Flat

Frenchman Flat is a dry lakebed, covering 123 square miles, contained within areas 5 and 11 of the Nevada Test Site. At this site, the military conducted fourteen atmospheric tests between 1951 and 1962, and five underground nuclear tests between 1965 and 1968. The underground tests followed the 1963 Limited Test Ban Treaty that prevented further atmospheric testing. The flat terrain of the area gave good visibility for photographing and filming the tests for later review.

Yucca Flat

Yucca Flat is a closed basin in the Nevada Test Site where 827 documented atmospheric and underground nuclear tests took place between 1951 and 1992—a total that represents almost eighty percent of all United States nuclear tests. The two-hundred square mile region lies to the east of the Nevada Test Site, about ten miles north of Frenchman Flat, and contains test areas 1 through 4, and 6 through 10.

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