NTS Offsite Radiation Safety Program

The United States began conducting nuclear tests at what was then called the Nevade Proving Grounds on January 27, 1951. In those days of the cold war, the testing of nuclear weapons was done in the atmosphere, where the explosive devices were located on the surface, set at the top of towers, suspended from balloons, dropped from aircraft, or even fired from a cannon. Some were placed in tunnels or in uncased and unstemmed holes. Altogether, between 1951 and 1958, when the President declared a moratorium on nuclear testing, the Atomic Energy Commission conducted 119 tests on the Nevada Test Site. The Site was operated for this purpose a few months during each year except for 1954 and 1956, when all U.S. nuclear tests were conducted in the Pacific Islands. In 1954, the Atomic Energy Commission and the U.S. Public Health Service signed an agreement making the Public Health Service (PHS) responsible for carrying out a continuing program of offsite radiological safety for U.S. nuclear weapons testing. In 1955, the PHS began to conduct the Offsite Radiation Safety Program with the test series called Operation Teapot. When the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was established in 1970, the PHS Laboratory in Las Vegas responsible for the offsite Program became a part of the new Agency, and EPA has continued the Program since that time