National Atomic Testing Museum, Las Vegas | Review
The National Atomic Testing Museum is one of the more unusual attractions in Las Vegas, Nevada. It shows how the atomic testing industry spurred the growth of Sin City.
Where is the National Atomic Testing Museum?
The National Atomic Testing Museum is Las Vegas, Nevada. It’s not on the Strip, however. This Las Vegas Museum is on E Flamingo Road, by the University of Nevada campus.
How much does entry to the National Atomic Testing Museum cost?
Tickets for the National Atomic Testing Museum cost $29. Alternatively, you can save money across several Las Vegas experiences with the Go City Las Vegas Explorer Pass. This pass lasts for 60 days, and covers two to seven attractions – you can decide which attractions as you go. With the pass saved on your mobile device, entry is quick and hassle-free.
National Atomic Testing Museum review
For all the things that are incredible and absurd about Las Vegas, Sin City’s most remarkable achievement is how quickly it has grown. Today, the population of the Las Vegas metropolitan area is around 1.9 million. In 1960 – just 51 years ago – the population was 64,405.
I know this, because it says so in the National Atomic Testing Museum – a Vegas attraction that deviates from the norm of faux Eiffel Towers, in-hotel roller coasters and Central American men trying to sell you prostitutes while you watch the dancing fountains at the Bellagio.
The 1950s is when Las Vegas, realistically, began to take off. It was when the first resort casinos opened and the reputation for being a bit naughty set in. There are many reasons that Vegas has become what it is today – proximity to casino-free California, lax attitudes to law enforcement for mobsters, the building of the Hoover Dam – but the one that doesn’t quite get the credit it deserves is nuclear weapons testing.
Recommended Las Vegas experiences
- See a Cirque du Soleil show. If picking just one, Ká at the MGM Grand is the most spectacular.
- Take a Grand Canyon helicopter tour. Fly over the extraordinary desert scenery and land inside the canyon.
- Visit the remarkable Hoover Dam – on a VIP tour that goes inside the dam.
- Eat at the best in-the-know restaurants – on a foodie secrets walking tour.
- Explore Red Rock Canyon the easy way – on an electric bike tour.
Atomic weapons testing in Nevada
The first atom bomb was exploded in New Mexico, and subsequent tests were carried out on the likes of Bikini Atoll in what is now the Marshall Islands. But testing in the Pacific was hugely expensive and inconvenient, so it was decided that a continental testing site was needed. Out of four candidates, a whopping great chunk of land in the Nevada desert that was already owned by the Federal Government drew the short straw.
The nearest city, lying within mushroom cloud viewing range to the south, was Las Vegas. Instead of stamping and screaming about the potentially lethal hazard being placed to the north, the moneymen of Vegas decided that this was not the short straw at all.
Viewing weapons tests from Las Vegas
The newly emerging resort hotels started to organise viewing parties, and although the authorities at the Nevada Test Site tried to keep test times a secret, tourists and locals flocked to see the explosions when they were found out about.
More importantly, however, the Las Vegas Valley was designated a ‘Critical Defense Area’ and bucketloads of government money was poured into it. In 1950, the population was just 24,624. The Test Site money and the advent of successful tourism saw it almost treble within a decade – the boom had begun in more ways than one.
The history of the Nevada Test Site at the National Atomic Testing Museum
The museum itself has its strengths – it covers the history of the Nevada Test Site in detail, it has copies of the letters from Albert Einstein to President Roosevelt that suggested nuclear power should be looked into as a matter of urgency and there’s a room where you can ‘experience’ an atomic explosion. In the latter, the floor shakes, steam hisses from speakers and the mushroom cloud goes up in front of you. Suffice to say, it’s not a particularly realistic simulation, as I wouldn’t be here writing this if so.
And that would be the major glaring weakness of the museum. In parts it’s little more than a propaganda exercise. There are no dissenting voices presented, and all the talking heads appear adamant that the billions of dollars spent blowing up bombs in the desert were vitally important for protecting our planet and preventing World War 3.
The flaws of the National Atomic Testing Museum
The horrors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are glossed over almost completely, as are the effects of those living near the Pacific atolls where the biggest blasts took place. As for what happened to the local people, we learn in a snippet of a sentence that “some reactor releases probably caused higher thyroid exposures” and that’s it. There’s an overwhelming stench of cover-up and of the full story not being presented.
As for the local native Americans whose land it was, we learn that they were shunted off their land, and that they didn’t approve of tests being carried out there. Again, it’s a footnote.
The atomic history of Las Vegas and Nevada is engrossing. But it will be even more so once the full story is presented.
More things to do in Las Vegas
Australia to Las Vegas flights | Los Angeles to Las Vegas road trip | Neon Museum | Red Rock Canyon e-bike tours | Ferrari driving experience | Fremont Street zipline | Hoover Dam.