Frenchman Flat is a Tonopah Basin

Tonopah Basin

The Tonopah Basin is one of the Central Nevada Desert Basins that extends from the band of arid footslopes along the north side of the Mojave Desert northward into the Big Smoky Valley and the Railroad Valley...

 landform used as a nuclear weapons detonation site at the Nevada Test Site

Nevada Test Site

The Nevada National Security Site , previously the Nevada Test Site , is a United States Department of Energy reservation located in southeastern Nye County, Nevada, about northwest of the city of Las Vegas...

 (NTS), some 65 miles (104.6 km) from Las Vegas

Las Vegas, Nevada

Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...

, in the United States. Frenchman Flat is a dry lake, an alkaline desert depression which spans Area 5 and Area 11 within NTS. The first nuclear test conducted at the Nevada Test Site was a one-kiloton bomb, code-named "Able," dropped on Frenchman Flat on January 27, 1951.

Area 5

Area 5 consists of 246 square kilometers (95 square miles) of the southeastern portion of NTS, north of the town of Mercury

Mercury, Nevada

Mercury, Nevada is a town in Nye County, Nevada, United States, 5 miles north of U.S. Route 95 at a point 65 miles further northwest of Las Vegas. It is situated within the Nevada Test Site and was constructed by the Atomic Energy Commission to house and service the staff of the test site. The...

, and includes the Area 5 Radioactive Waste Management Site, the Hazardous Waste Storage Unit, and the Spill Test Facility. In the decade 1951–1962, 14 above ground nuclear tests were conducted at Frenchman Flat; several of these atmospheric tests were weapons effects tests. A relatively modest 8-kiloton blast in January 1951 broke storefront windows in Las Vegas.

Tests to determine building damage by nuclear blast left remains at the site, remains that are of historical interest. Five underground nuclear weapons were detonated at Frenchman Flat between 1965 and 1968. A carbonate aquifer makes Area 5 not as well suited to underground testing, so there were fewer detonations carried out.

Waste management

The Area 5 Radioactive Waste Management Site covers 732 acres (3 km²), a section of desert land used for low-level waste disposal. Mixed waste, including transuranic mixed waste, is stored.

Nonproliferation Test and Evaluation Complex

The Nonproliferation Test and Evaluation Complex (NPTEC), formerly called the Hazardous Material (HAZMAT) Spill Center, is located on Frenchman Flat in Area 5, a natural geological basin. It is the largest facility for open air testing of hazardous materials and biological stimulants in the world. It includes a control building with data acquisition and recording instruments, a command and control computer, and support personnel. The test area has a tank farm, a wind tunnel, elevated stacks and spill pans, and storage tanks for the test chemicals. The facility houses both large-scale and small-scale hazardous materials testing and training. It provides a secure test-bed, calibrated release systems, weather data, ground truth instrumentation, and logistics in field verification and validation of technology.

Area 11

Area 11 covers 67 square kilometers (26 square miles) of the eastern border of NTS. Four atmospheric plutonium-dispersal safety tests were conducted in the northern portion of Area 11 in 1954 and 1956. Hazardous residues from these tests continue to provide a realistic environment for safety training, radiological monitoring, sampling instruction and first-responder drills. Five underground nuclear weapons were detonated in Area 11 from 1966 to 1971.