The Wall
Street journal pays a visit to the all-new Atomic Testing Museum, which lies not far from the Las Vegas Strip. It
is a place that both celebrates and ruminates over the difficult, but damn fascinating history of nuclear testing in
the United States.
The 8,000-square-foot museum opened in March, and is the work of the Nevada Test Site Historical Foundation. It sounds
cool and kitschy, if such a thing can be said about a place that celebrates a technology that could wipe life off the
planet. The ticket booth resembles the site’s guard station; the movie theater looks like a bunker. “Countdown to next
show,” flashes an ominous red clock. A roar and a blast of air greet visitors in the concrete theater…I assume it’s not
radioactive.
The museum sketches the history of the nuclear age, which started with the first atomic bomb test in the New Mexico
desert in 1945. The first true shot heard round the world.