7. WHERE NEVADA TESTS ARE CONDUCTED Location and Geography The southern edge of the Nevada Test Site is approximately 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The original Test Site, the part in which nuclear tests are conducted, covers an area of approximately 415,000 acres, roughly 16 x 40 miles, extending longest north and south. On two sides -- east and north -- it adjoins the U. S. Air Force's Las Vegas Bombing and Gunnery Range of which it was originally a part. The terrain is typical of the section of Nevada, including ranges of hills and mountain peaks, and desert valleys with drain- age into dry lake beds. feet above sea level. The altitude varies from 3075 to 4050 South of NTS, roughly between it and Las Vegas are the Spring Mountains, which include Charleston Peak and Angel's Peak from which many Civil Defense and. news groups have observed past detonations. Colorful names develop from reading a map clockwise around NTS: Specter Range, Rock Valley;~Skull Mountain, Jackass Flats, Lookout Peak, the intriguing "Barren Spot!!, Mine Mountain, Shoshone Mountains, Eleana Range, Papoose Range, Emigrant Valley, Timpahute Range, Ranger Mountains, Spotted Range, and Sheep Mountains. Additions to the Original Site The Test Site has a four-section protuberance on the south which contains the AEC's Camp Mercury, but not the Army's Camp Desert Rock which is two miles south of Mercury. During 1955, construction of a small facility at Watertown, in the Groom Lake area at the northeast corner of the Test Site, was announced. The area has been joined to the air closure space over the Test Site in which unauthorized aircraft may not fly, but it has not been made a part of the Test Site. During 1956, annexation of a 12.2 x 39.6 mile area to the Test Site was announced. The added land was obtained from the Air Force by the AEC as the site of a new technical area in whichground tests will be conducted on nuclear propulsion devices for guided missles. Nuclear detonations will not be conducted in the new area, which lies to the west of the original Test Site and formerly was a part of the Las Vegas Bombing and Gunnery Range. A new area immediately north of the Nevada Test Site but within the boundaries of the Las Vegas Bombing and Gunnery Range was - 28- . COmen/yog LANL £2 * J 4