For decades, hundreds of nuclear weapons were tested at the vast Nevada Test Site. CNET Road Trip 2012 stopped by for a chilling tour.MERCURY, Nev.--On June 24, 1957, a 37-kiloton atomic bomb detonated less than a hundred miles from Las Vegas. But this wasn't war, and no people were killed by the weapon that was three times the size of the nuclear device dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, in 1945.
In fact, this was a test, known as the Priscilla test, that was conducted on what was then called the Nevada Test Site, a highly-secure, 1,375-square-mile facility in the desert and mountains north of Las Vegas.
Now called the Nevada National Security Site, it's been years since any nuclear weapons were tested there. But from 1951 to 1992, 1,021 atomic bombs were detonated here, including 828 below ground. And today, the site is part history lesson and part U.S. Department of Energy research center.
As part of Road Trip 2012, CNET reporter Daniel Terdiman took a trip out to see the effects of some of those nukes, and left with a newfound appreciation for the most destructive weapons humankind has ever created. [Read more]
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