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Nevada Test Site

Area 1— As a part of the Nuclear Test Zone, this area occupies 70 km2 (27 mi2) near the center of the Yucca Flat weapons test basin.

Area 1 was the site of four atmospheric nuclear tests between 1952 and 1955. Three underground nuclear tests have also been detonated in Area 1, one in 1971 and two in 1990.

In 1955, as part of the nation's Civil Defense Program, various types of homes and buildings were constructed to test what effects a nuclear blast and blast over-pressures would have on typical urban structures

A few of these "survival Town" structures still stand.

Area 1 is also the location of two four-story reinforced concrete structures constructed for the express purpose of structual response investigations. These structures have allowed study of structural response characteristics which can be applied to high-rise buildings.

The Subdock, at the intersection of Pahute Mesa Road and Tippipah Highway, is the maintenance and storage area for an over $20-million inventory of large-hole drilling equipment and miscellaneous supplies. Day-to-day operations included replacing worn cutters with new or rebuilt cutters on a large drill bit, straightening small drill pipe and tubing, and other drilling tool maintenance tasks. A concrete batch plant and storage area for bulk construction material as well as a shaker plant which produces stemming material and concrete aggregate lie to the northeast of the drilling yard.

Just north of the drill yard was an industrial x-ray/gamma source non-destructive material test facility

The Lyner Complex (renamed"U1a") is a mined underground complex in Area 1 that is available for dynamic experiments (including subcritical experiments involving special nuclear material) and hydrodynamic tests that cannot be conducted aboveground because they may disperse hazardous materials. Initial work on what is now known as the Lyner Complex began in the late 1960s with the mining of the U1a shaft to a depth of 305 meters (m) (1,000 feet [ft]) for a nuclear test. It was not used.

Additional work took place in the 1980s and early 1990s to develop a complex that could be used to perform intentionally designed low-yield tests or experiments, which included safety tests, and other experiments that would be expected to remain subcritical or produce negligible nuclear energy release.

The Ledoux nuclear test with a yield of less than 25 kilotons was conducted in 1990 in a drift within this tunnel complex.

The Kismet experiment, involving high explosives, tritium, depleted uranium, and other materials, was a dynamic experiment conducted in the Lyner Complex in March 1995. Both Ledoux and Kismet were contained to prevent radiological releases to the rest of the Lyner Complex and the surface environment.

The "U1a" mined underground complex, continues to be available for additional dynamic experiments (including subcritical experiments involving special nuclear material) and hydrodynamic tests that now cannot be conducted atmospherically because they may disperse hazardous materials.

Whether to be conducted withing Area 1, or elsewhere at the NTS, those hydrodynamic tests being planned by DOE for the 1996-2005 time period will be integrated systems tests of mock-up nuclear packages during which the conventional high explosive (HE) portion is detonated and the resulting motions and reactions of materials and components are measured. These hydrodynamic tests (perhaps totaling over 1000) will be used to obtain diagnostic information on the behavior of a nuclear weapons primary assembly using simulated materials, such as depleted uranium, in place of the fissile material in an actual weapon, and to evaluate the effects of aging on nuclear remaining in the nation's arsenal.

Total number of Nuclear Tests 8 and Detonations 9 as having occured in Area 1, according to United States Nuclear Tests July 1945 through September 1992 DOE/NV--209-REV 15 December 2000 which may view here, but the document only lists the following tests as having occured in Area 1, other are tests are listed by hole or shaft number and am still working on updating this list. Note this does not count the current series of subcritical nuclear tests.

Test Number	Name	Date	Sponser	Remarks	Photo
27	Easy	11/29/52	LANL	Part of Operation Buster was a 31 kiloton weapons related device
39	Simon	04/25/53	LLNL	Operation Upshot-Knothole 43kt
59	HA (High Altitude)	04/06/55	LANL	Named "HA" for "high altitude" in reference to its intended detonation at an altitude of 40,000 feet
62	Apple-2	05/05/55	LANL	A 29-kiloton device named "Apple II" was detonated from a 500-foot tower on Yucca Flat. It was the second nationally televised nuclear test associated with an extensive civil effects program. This "Survival Town" house, some 7,500 feet from a 29-kiloton nuclear detonation, remained essentially intact. Survival Town consisted of houses, office buildings, fallout shelters, power systems, communications equipment, radio broadcasting station, and trailer homes. The town was built for a Civil Defense exercise and to test not previously subjected to a nuclear blast.
106	Galileo	09/02/57	LANL	Operation Plumbbob 11kt

DOE/NV--209-REV 15 December 2000