NA-113 Tour, 6/30/2016

Las Vegas, NV: Nevada National Security Site, 2016. Presumed First Edition, First printing. CD. Very good. This is a Compact Disc that has 95 files with photographs. Tape with name of former owner on side of CD container. A substantial amount of the photographs appear to have been taken down the U1a tunnel. There is also a photo of the Sedan crater. No text or sound with the photographs. Files appear to need to be clicked through sequentially to be viewed. The Nevada National Security Site (N2S2), previously the Nevada Test Site (NTS), is a reservation located in southeastern Nye County, Nevada, about 65 miles northwest of the city of Las Vegas. Formerly known as the Nevada Proving Grounds, the site was established on 11 January 1951 for the testing of nuclear devices, covering approximately 1,360 square miles. Nuclear weapons testing at the Nevada Test Site began with a 1-kiloton-of-TNT (4.2 TJ) bomb dropped on Frenchman Flat on 27 January 1951. During the 1950s, the mushroom clouds from the 100 atmospheric tests could be seen for almost 100 mi. The city of Las Vegas experienced noticeable seismic effects, and the distant mushroom clouds became tourist attractions. St. George, Utah, received the brunt of the fallout of aboveground nuclear testing in the Yucca Flats/Nevada Test Site. Winds carried the fallout of these tests directly through St. George and southern Utah. Marked increases in cancers, such as leukemia, lymphoma, thyroid cancer, breast cancer, melanoma, bone cancer, brain tumors, and gastrointestinal tract cancers, were reported from the mid-1950s through 1980. The vast majority-828 of the 928 total nuclear tests-were underground. NA-113 is the Office of Research and Development in the Office of Defense Programs in the National Nuclear Security Administration. The primary mission of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is to maintain the safety, security and effectiveness of the nation's nuclear deterrent through surveillance programs and life extension campaigns. Exercising the skills and capabilities required to accomplish that mission provide the nation with a unique capability to support a wide variety of additional national security missions. To maximize this potential, NNSA is exploring ways to expand the mission of the Nevada Test Site. To reflect this expanded mission, NNSA is renaming the Site the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS). The NNSS will fully utilize the inherent capabilities and remote location of the Site to support all of our Nation's nuclear, energy, and environmental security efforts. The following summary outlines current capabilities and missions at the NTS and highlights possible activities that can be pursued under the new national security mission of NNSS. Current Missions and Programs · NNSA Defense Programs: NNSS's primary mission is to support the nuclear stockpile. Several major facilities at the site support that mission, including the Device Assembly Facility (DAF), the U1a underground complex (U1a), the Big Explosive Experimental Facility (BEEF), and the Joint Actinide Shock Physics Experimental Research (JASPER) Facility. · NNSA's Nuclear Nonproliferation Programs: NNSS also provides a test location for evaluating sensor technologies, as well as for methods of detecting, characterizing, and monitoring nuclear weapons related activities that are useful for arms control and nonproliferation purposes. · NNSA Nuclear Emergency Response Capabilities: NNSA assets deployed in Nevada currently play a critical role in the management of NNSA's National Nuclear Emergency Response efforts. These include the execution of Aerial Measurements, Consequence Management and Crisis Response, and provides program direction for the receipt, staging, assessment, disassembly, and/or destruction of nuclear or radiological devices during emergency scenarios. · Other Government Agency Programs: NNSS currently supports other federal agency activities, such as remote imaging, chemical/biological projects, military training, and special projects. The NNSS also oversees and administers the conduct of training for first- responders in the prevention, protection, and response to possible terrorist use of radiological or nuclear material as a WMD. Sedan Crater is the largest ground depression resulting from a nuclear detonation in the United States. On July 6, 1962, the Atomic Energy Commission, a predecessor of the Department of Energy, unleashed a 104 kiloton nuclear explosion resulting in a crater 1,280 feet in diameter and 320 feet deep. The Sedan experiment used an explosive device 3.5 times greater than any similar event at the Nevada Test Site. The explosion displaced approximately 7.5 million tons of earth, scattering it over 2,500 acres. The event covered vegetation and soil in radioactive material as far away as 10,000 feet from ground zero. The Sedan experiment was part of the Plowshare Program, established in June 1957 to explore peaceful applications for controlled nuclear detonations. The program took its name from the Bible: "And they shall beat their swords into plowshares" (Isaiah 2:4). Ultimately, Plowshare resulted in 23 thermonuclear detonations in Nevada, two in New Mexico, and three in Colorado. Only four events were intended to produce craters, all of which were at the Nevada Test Site, and Sedan was by far the largest.