In Las Vegas, Nevada, DRI's Science and Technology Building, home to the Atomic Testing Museum and the Nevada Test Site Foundation offices has opened in Las Vegas just off the Las Vegas Strip. Saturday, February 19th, hundreds gathered to participate in the opening of the new museum.

Honored guests included: U.S. Senator Harry Reid, Nevada Governor Kenny Guinn, among other Senators, U.S. Representatives as well as the Mayor of Las Vegas.

The three-story, 61,000-square-foot building includes:

A history of nuclear weapons experiments in displays. Without leaving Las Vegas, those visiting the museum can immerse themselves in a virtual tour of the Nevada Test Site.

Visitors entering the museum will receive a "security pass," reminiscent of a film badge that measured radiation exposure on each person received before passing the checkpoint to enter the Test Site.

Museum visitors will see and hear the flavor of the 1950s and 1960s when the Test Site was the second largest employer in Nevada. In the Ground Zero Theater, visitors can watch films of the above-ground tests.

The new building is home to the Nevada Atomic Testing History Institute (NATHI), a one-of-a-kind facility including state-of-the-art archives and the Atomic Testing Museum that, combined, describes and documents the efforts that took place on America's primary Cold War nuclear battlefield, the Nevada Test Site (NTS).

Overall, it showcases the role Nevada's desert played in the struggle to prevent global nuclear annihilation. The Southern Nevada Science Center Phase II expansion is the result of community-wide discussions and planning. Representatives of DRI, the U.S. Department of Energy, National Nuclear Security Administration Nevada Operations Office, the Nevada Test Site Historical Foundation, Bechtel Nevada, NTS Development Corporation, Los Alamos, Lawrence Livermore, and Sandia National Laboratories, the Nevada Science and Technology Center, the Nevada Alliance for Defense, Energy, and Business, and other citizens and stakeholders have been involved since the beginning of the project and remain dedicated to its completion.

The museum at 755 E. Flamingo Road in Las Vegas is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays and from 1 to 5 p.m. on Sundays. General admission is $10 with discounts for seniors, students and military personnel with proper identification. Children under age 6 are free.

The foundation received a $500,000 donation from Dorothy Grier in the name of her late husband Herbert E. Grier, a nuclear scientist and co-founder of longtime Test Site contractor EG&G. The Scientific Discovery and Innovation Gallery will be named for Grier.

Frank H. Rogers Science and Technology Building in Las Vegas	Herb Grier sitting at Control Point console, 1957

Artist conception of new museum in Albuquerque

Another new Atomic museum will be opening in the not too distant future too.

In the spring of 2006, the new National Museum of Nuclear Science and History will open in Albuquerque, N.M., sharing the story of nuclear science with the public. With hands-on programs and high-tech exhibits, the Museum will cover topics that range from energy to space applications. Exhibits will interpret the Atomic Universe, Nuclear Medicine and others. The Engineerit! Lab will create a mission-based learning environment to introduce students to science.

Links to further reading and information on the new Atomic Museums:

The Nevada Test Site Historical Foundation - Las Vegas, Nevada (Phone: 702-794-5151)

Virtual Tour of new Atomic Museum in Las Vegas

The New National Atomic Museum - Albuquerque, New Mexico

Atomic Legacy: Test Site museum will preserve history of nuclear experiments
Las Vegas SUN, July 5, 2002
By Mary Manning (manning@lasvegassun.com)

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