NTS - Nevada Test Site

NTS (Nevada Test Site) - darkometer rating : 9 - The military area where the USA conducted the majority of its nuclear tests (though not the first one, which was at Trinity , nor the biggest ones, which were done at Bikini and other locations in the Pacific ). It's the US equivalent of the ex- USSR 's Polygon test site near Semipalatinsk , but unlike the latter it is still in use! There are no atomic bomb tests proper any longer, since the moratorium on all nuclear testing was finally agreed on in 1992, but so-called "subcritical tests" are still conducted. Also there are nuclear storage facilities, and other types of research are undertaken too within the NTS boundaries. Normally, the whole area is completely out of bounds to the general public and security is predictably tight. On a few days a year there are, however, coach tours into the NTS for civilian visitors – though these hard to get a place on. It is not impossible though … (but these days you have to be a US citizen or be officially a resident in the US) More background info What there is to see Location Access and costs Time required Combinations with other dark destinations Combinations with non-dark destinations More background info: [UPDATE: officially the site is now re-named "Nevada National Security Site, NNSS, but I will stick to the internationally more familiar original name here.] It had become clear from 1946 that the early post- WWII proving grounds in the remote Pacific islands such as Bikini required too great a logistical and financial effort, so from 1950 an area for conducting tests on the American mainland was searched for. Of the few areas considered, the desert in the south of Nevada was decided on due to its extreme remoteness and favourable weather/climate conditions. The first test took place in 1951.