Monday, November 4, 2024

HISTORIC BLACK VEGAS: What can we learn from the Nevada Test Site?

July 15, 2024 by  
Filed under Community

Claytee D. White

BY CLAYTEE D. WHITE

My April visit to the former Nevada Test Site, now the Nevada National Security Site, introduced me to locations that took my breath away. First, I saw Sedan Crater, then the Apple II House and finally Frenchman’s Flat among lots of other historical spaces. 

Sedan Crater is 320 feet deep with a diameter of 1280 feet. Standing on the rim, beyond a barrier, it feels as if you are being pulled by this vast void that was created on July 6, 1962 as part of Operation Plowshare. This hole is scary. It is the largest human-made crater in the United States and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. This, of course, was an underground test. Miners were employed to plant these devices into the earth using complicated technology. Many Blacks from the Westside worked as miners drilling tunnels and holes and constructing shafts. The dangerous part seemed to have been the re-entry tunnels dug to retrieve equipment after nuclear blasts. 

The most fascinating stop on our tour was the Apple II House. It is a two-story structure made of wood and would have been right at home where I grew up in rural North Carolina. Approaching it down a short lane, this typical looking house was quietly elegant but completely bare. No paint remained. The chimney grew up from the ground to a few feet above the roof line. Each room had windows and there was a back and a front door but you are not welcome to enter because all the innards were in disarray. Apple House was 7,500 feet from ground zero of the 1955 Apple 2 test. This house was built in an effort to determine the seismic effects of the atomic test on a typical home. The explosion was 29 kilotons — and this house still stands. 

One of our final stops was Frenchmen’s Flat, where the first test took place in January 1951. On December 18, 1950, President Harry Truman authorized the establishment of a 680 square-mile portion of the Las Vegas Bombing and Gunnery Range as the Nevada Proving Ground. In 1955, this area became the Nevada Test Site. And today it’s the NNSS. Fourteen above-ground nuclear tests were conducted at Frenchman Flat. That January 1951 test broke storefront windows in Las Vegas. Today, this old test site has evolved to include subcritical experiments and other Stockpile Stewardship programs designed to ensure the nation’s remaining nuclear weapons remain safe, secure, and effective without full-scale nuclear testing. In addition, the emergence of global and homeland security threats has resulted in a further shift in the NNSS’ mission toward planning, experimentation and training to prevent and counter those threats.” 

To learn more about this history and about future opportunities, take a tour and conduct some research at the Atomic Museum, which “uses lessons of the past and present to better understand the extent and effect of nuclear testing on worldwide nuclear deterrence and geopolitical history.” 

Is this still an industry where Blacks can play a role? Do Blacks want a role?

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