A friend reminded me of something I did a few Years ago. If you get a chance it is a day well spent.

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Atomic Energy Test Site Mercury NV.

While reading the Chicago Sun-Times in June of 1994 an article caught my eye. The Headline said FUTURE UP IN THE AIR FOR NEVADA TEST SITE. This was a reprint of a Los Angeles times. article. As I recall it told a short history of the test site from the height of the Cold War to the present day. The last two paragraphs of the article hinted that tours were available. My friend Kevin Murphy is in the Air National Guard and as we were going to go to the Western Winter Blast and spend a couple of extra days enjoying the warm weather in the middle of a Midwestern winter. I asked him to investigate the possibility of taking the tour. With a few calls to the military, a number to the Atomic Energy Commission in Las Vegas was acquired. They told us that there was a tour of the test site was scheduled for Feb 21, 95. One of the requirements for the reservations was to give them a name, address, and social security number. With minor adjustments to our schedule we were able to participate so we made reservations.

Before our departure from Chicago we received a letter from the AEC with some helpful hints. The only one that gave us some concern was that we were to wear comfortable gym shoes. As I don't wear gym shoes I thought why would they specify gym shoes if we didn't have to donate them to a low level nuclear waste site? My fears were unfounded as a call to the AEC on our arrival in Las Vegas revealed that what they meant was to wear comfortable shoes as there would be some walking involved.

Tours begin at 0700 at the AEC offices in Las Vegas a couple blocks west of the strip. A semi retired AEC employee is the tour guide. He said that there were at least one maybe more tours every week. about the only thing you need is something resembling a lunch , comfortable shoes and a full day to take the tour. Your return to Las Vegas is scheduled for 1630. Our first scheduled stop was a showroom for the proposed Yucca Mountain Storage facility. My opinion of the stay was that they give a balanced view of the pros and cons of the project. Literature was available for and against the Project. What seems to tick Nevadans off is that Yucca Mountain is the only site being studied ( due to budget restraints ).

Then off to Mercury NV.. On arrival at the entrance there is a short security check and a photo ID is required. Badges are issued and you are off to the commissary where the tour guide gets a jug of water and vending machines are available. Not too much money is needed as the prices haven't changed much in the last 25 years.

By 1015 you are at Frenchmen's flat. This was one of the sites of above ground testing.
Although a complete town was not built on this site many individual test structures were set up around the detonation area. Some of the structures were a parking garage, Pill boxes, bridges, motels, etc.. Communications and sensor wires are strewn around all over the place. Two Complete towns were built on the test site and most of the debris had been disposed of before any one thought that it would be interesting to leave it as it was.

Around 1045 there is a brief tour of area 5 Radioactive Waste Management Site. The precautions and inventory of waste containers are discussed. Waste is stored in moderate sized containers. Some are boxes and some are 55 Gal. drums as I recall. All are plotted on a map along with what is in them so that if one has to be retrieved for any reason it can be. Finally your bus is tested to be sure that no contaminants have been picked up.

Around 1140 you arrive at Control Point 1. This is a secure area and a walk through by security personnel is performed. This is also where you get to eat your sack lunch. You are brought into the (WAR ROOM) Control center where wind sensor maps, monitors, displays, and telephones abound. You are treated to a couple of movies of some of the underground tests. It will start with an aerial view of the test site. followed by a 5 count countdown. Shortly after zero you can see the ground jump and a little bit of dust rise. This is immediately followed by what I found to be the most amazing. It was an aerial view of the site with an announcement of 5 seconds to crater and a count down. At zero the earth would just collapse forming the crater.

Another thing that stood out in my mind was Sedan Crater. This was part of operation plowshare. someone thought it would be really helpful if we used some of our nukes to dig Canals etc.. The device was a 104 kiloton device buried 635 ft deep. The resulting crater was 1280 ft across and 320 ft deep. The force of the detonation released seismic energy equivalent to 4.75 on the Richter scale. 12 million tons of Nevada were moved during this test. There are a few signs posted listing the radiation levels and the decay rate as I recall they gave me the impression that it was above normal but not by much and you really don’t stay much more than 10 Min.

The preceding was done in March with the literatchure given out.
The following is written from memory on the train trip out here.

Following Sedan Crater you pass by one of the assembly buildings on your way to where they store the drilling equipment. The largest drill bit drills a hole 21 feet across. It is attached to double wall pipe. The inner pipe is 7” diameter which carries clean lubricating slurry which is mostly water. The outer pipe is larger and carries the rock laden slurry back to the surface for cleaning and reuse. They tell you the weight of the bits and that the weight is what causes the drilling to be accomplished. This is also where they describe how deep they drill. Once “ THE PACKAGE” with it’s multitude of sensor cables attached is lowered to the bottom, the hole is filled with concrete.

Between 600 and 1000 devices have been detonated at the test site. Out of all of those they do not have a full second’s worth of data from the attached sensors. Most of the information they retrieve is gotten by a core sample retrieved after the ground stabilizes. The core is analyzed for elemental isotopes which I gather helps them understand what happened down there.

The last area you visit is one of the towns that was built. Only two or three buildings remain all were charred but still standing. In the literature there are a couple of pictures of mannequin families going about with there lives and what happened to them. You go by the trenches where our soldiers were lying waiting to attack after the heat and neutrons’ subsided. There were also pictures “movie stills” of an air burst from a hot air balloon, and finally the Atomic Cannon.

The distances between the areas are large, which is why it takes all day to visit about 8 sites. I also found it strange that it pretty much looked like the rest of Nevada that I have driven across,
“boring”
but all in all I found it to be a day well spent. There is no charge for the tour.

Paul Hegge
Elgin, Illinois