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Area 25 — This is the largest area on the NTS. It occupies some 578 km2 (223 mi2) in the southwestern corner of the site and includes an entrance gate to the NTS. Approximately 3 kilometers (2 miles) north of the town of Lathrop Wells.
Other than for several small and isolated hills of volcanic rock in the westcentral portion of Area 25, the interior valley floor emcompasses what is commonly know as Jackass Flats.
Located roughly in the center of Area 25, Jackass Flats was the site selected for a series of ground tests of reactors, rocket engines, and stages as part of a program to develop nuclear reactors for use in the nation's space program.
In
the early 1960's, the AEC and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
negotiated an interagency agreement to establish and manage a test area at the
NTS designated as the Nuclear Rocket Development Station (NRDS). The NRDS facilities,
inactive since 1973 and added to the NTS in 1974, remain today in various stages
of disrepair.
They consist of three widely separated reactor test cells or stands, two Maintenance, Assembely, and Disassembly (MAD) facility buildings, a Control Point complex, and Administrative Area complex, and a radioactive materials storage area.
A standard gauge railroad system connects the test stands and the MAD buildings. The railroad transported nuclear reactors and engine systems back and forth from the rocket and engine assembly buildings to the test cells and engine test stand.
Several experimental programs were conducted at the test site during the Cold War, exploring ways to use atomic energy to propel rockets, according to test site histories. Two research reactors were built as part of Air Force-funded Project Pluto, a program begun in 1957 and ended in 1961.
Area 25 in the southwest corner of the test site was the location for Project Rover in the early 1960s. Thirteen research reactors were assembled to prove that a nuclear reactor can be used to heat liquid hydrogen for spacecraft propulsion.
In the early 1970s, the old Atomic
Energy Commission and the nuclear power industry scouted the test site for power
plant locations, but abandoned the idea when questions arose about seismic activity
Two shallow-land burial radioactive waste disposal units and equipment decontamination facility were operated near the MAD facility by the NRDA.
During
the late 1970's / early 1980's, the Engine Maintenance Assembly and Disassembly
(E-MAD) building was used for high-level radioactive materials handling studies.
Thirteen "hot" spent fuel assemblies were brought to E-MAD and then
encapsulated in stainless steel canisters with welded lid closures. Eleven of
the canisters were transported to Area 15 in support of the underground "Spent
Fuel-Climax" project. The other two canisters were utilized in above ground,
concrete shielded, storage studies, and shallow, dry-well, storage studies.
When the studies were completed in 1983, the canisters were removed from their temporary storage holes and returned to E-MAD. In 1986, all 13 of the spent fuel assemblies were repackaged and shipped to the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory.
Area 25 is divided into multiple zone categories: Yucca Mountain Site Characterization Zone; Research, Test, and Experiment Zone; and Reserved Zone.
The Yucca Mountain Site Characterization Zone within the boundaries of the NTS represents a land assignment area for site characterization activities. The former Nuclear Rocket Development Station administrative area complex in Area 25 has been rededicated as the Yucca Mountain Site Characterization Central Support Site. Limited Yucca Mountain characterization activities are also conducted off site and beyond Area 25. Similarly, the NTS has monitoring activities off site.
The Research, Test, and Experiment Zone in Area 25 is used by the U.S. Army's Ballistic Research Laboratory for depleted uranium testing. Two classifications of tests are conducted under this program, open-air tests and X-tunnel tests. These tests include hazard classification and system tests.
Research sites within the Reserved Zone include the Treatability Test Facility and Bare Reactor Experiment Nevada (BREN) Tower. The Treatability Test Facility was established in Area 25 for bench-scale testing of physical processes for separating plutonium and uranium from contaminated soils.
Area 25 was used in the early 1980s for MX (Peacekeeper) missile siting studies and canister ejection certification tests.
The
465-m (1,527-ft) BREN Tower has been used intermittently
by a number of organizations to conduct sonic-boom research, meteorological
studies, and free-fall/gravity-drop tests.
Orginally, a small, unshielded (bare) reactor was mounted on the hoist car and moved to various heights up and down the tower. Japanese-type houses were built near the base of the tower and were bombarded with various intensities of radiation. The scientists wanted to determine what kind of protection the shelters provided from the radiation of atomic weapons.
More recently, the facility has been used in support of the Brilliant Pebbles program, (read Star Wars) as well as in studies to develop the technology and measurement techniques for advanced infrared imaging from space satellites. A Brilliant Pebble is a relatively small, computer operated, rocket-powered, laser-equipped, missile designed to detect, track, and intercept ballistic missiles.
The Rock Valley Study Area is located south of Jackass Flats Road on the southern boundary of Area 25.The Rock Valley Study area, was selected in 1960 for studies of radiation on a desert ecosystem. Three study plots were fenced in the early 1960's, and in 1964 a 137Cs shielded source was intalled on a 50-foot tower in the center of one of the plots. (The cesium source was removed in the fall of 1982.) The other two areas were used as control areas.
Many research projects have been conducted at the Rock Valley facility during the past three decades by a number of government-sponsored scientists as well as students and others conducting environmental research.
Portions of the Area 25 Reserved Zone are used by the military for land navigation, training exercises and were used during the 1980's by the DOD in conjunction with MX (Peacekeeper) missile siting studies and canister ejection certification tests; however, all of these facilities have since been removed.
A so-called Treatability Test Facility was established in Area 25 several years ago by DOE for the bench-scale testing of physical processes for decontamination of plutonium- and uranium-contaminated soils. Currently, Area 25 is under consideration as a potential site for utility-scale research and demonstration solar project which is being planned for the NTS. As noted in the Final NTS EIS (DOE/NV, 1996), depending upon the technology or technologies being persued for application at the test site, this solar project could affect up to 971 hectares (2400 acres) of land.
Several experimental programs were conducted at the test site during the Cold War, exploring ways to use atomic energy to propel rockets, according to test site histories. Two research reactors were built as part of Air Force-funded Project Pluto, a program begun in 1957 and ended in 1961.
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