Discover the most sensitive nuclear weapons research in a laboratory deep underground in Nevada.
The U.S. conducts some of its most sensitive nuclear weapons research in a laboratory deep underground in Nevada. NPR was recently given a tour. National Nuclear Security Administration/Nevada National Security Site The US conducts some of its most sensitive nuclear weapons research in a laboratory deep underground in Nevada. NPR was recently given a tour. PODCAST : Step inside the secret lab where America tests its nuke. In the middle of a dry lakebed northwest of Las Vegas sits a lone section of a bridge, its steel girders bent like spaghetti. Nearby are other oddities — a massive bank vault with no bank for miles; the entrance of an underground parking garage with no lower levels; and domes of rebar and concrete that have been ripped open, leaving their insides exposed to the desert sky. A half-mile from here, on the morning of May 8, 1953, an Air Force bomber dropped a Mk-6D nuclear bomb from a height of 19,000 feet above the desert floor. It exploded with a yield of 27 kil...
