Cold War Technoscience in Nevada: The Nevada Test Site Oral History Project

During the Cold War, the United States conducted over 1000 nuclear weapons tests. Of those, 928 took place at the Nevada Test Site (NTS). One hundred tests were in the atmosphere and 921 underground at the 1375 square mile site located 65 north of Las Vegas. Nevada Test Site Oral History Project (NTSOHP) researchers have conducted over 300 hours of interviews with individuals affiliated with and impacted by the NTS, documenting the diversity of experience among many communities of voices including: weapons scientists, test site officials, laborers, contractors and support personnel, the military, American Indians, communities downwind of the NTS, anti-nuclear activists. The interviews record the often conflicting calculations of the risk and benefits of nuclear testing, providing a unique window into the reasoning and decision-making strategies utilized by individuals at all levels of the U.S. Cold War nuclear testing program complex, 1951-1992.