From the ruins of Pompeii to the mountainous Machu Picchu
In the early morning, a 37-kiloton atom bomb lit off. When the shock wave reached the reinforced observation blockhouse, it tore doors from their hinges.
In 1955, 14 nuclear test explosions known as Operation Teapot were set off in the Nevada desert at Yucca Flat.
While the door has been removed, the colossal strongbox may likely remain intact until the end of time.
On March 11, 1958, a US Air Force B-47 Stratojet with a nuclear bomb accidentally released it. The resulting explosion created a crater estimated to be 75 feet (23 m) wide and 25–35 feet (7.6–10.7 m) deep. It destroyed a local playhouse and leveled nearby trees. No one was killed.
In 1962, a shaft descending over 600 feet (182 m) into the desert floor was created, and the Sedan bomb was lowered into it. When the 104-kiloton bomb was detonated, it lifted the ground above it into a dome over 300 feet (91 m) high, sending a massive shockwave of dirt.
Today, the giant crater is still there in the middle of the desert, and monthly tours of the site are given.
Under the lagoon, you'll find the remains of nearly a dozen ships sunk during Operation Crossroads in 1946. Bikini Atoll itself is safe to visit, but avoid eating the coconuts!
The city of Oak Ridge was established by the US government in 1942 to serve as a home base for the Manhattan Project.
Chosen for its remote location, the entire city had to be built almost from scratch to handle the influx of employees and residents, which went from 3,000 to 75,000 within three years. The Secret City Festival, complete with WWII reenactors, happens every June.
Sources: (Atlas Obscura) (Travel Nevada) (History)
See also: Unlocking nuclear fusion: The game-changing energy revolution
Over the next 12 years, the US sent 23 nuclear bombs raining down on the Micronesian atoll.
The largest man-made crater in the US marks the spot where humans once tested mining with nukes.
Covering up that giant radioactive pit cost the government nearly a quarter of a billion dollars and took three years to complete. The result is an enormous dome, called the Cactus Dome, consisting of 358 gigantic concrete panels.
Located about halfway between Hawaii and Australia, residents of Bikini Atoll were forcibly relocated when the US took possession of the island chain in 1946.
The result of a massive underground nuclear test, the blast may have ended up irradiating more people than any other US nuclear test.
Locals were evacuated on the day of the detonation. Those who watched from afar described it feeling like an earthquake.
The site was selected because its earthquake activity afforded a basis for seismic signal comparisons. Today, you can visit the monument, which, in contrast to many historic nuclear test sites, you can drive right up to.
At ground zero, you can see green trinitite created by the bomb blast. It's forbidden to remove any of the trinitite from the premises.
Located at the Nevada National Security Site, Icecap Ground Zero is an underground facility built in 1992 for a nuclear test.
The project included purpose-built homes and other structures, set at varying distances from the blasts, to test the impact of the explosions. Today, public tours are available.
In the late '70s, in an effort to clean up the radioactive debris left by those explosions, the government dug up 111,000 cubic yards of soil from the Bikini and Rongelap atolls and deposited it on Runit Island.
Between 1946 and 1962, the US military conducted 105 atmospheric nuclear tests over the Marshall Islands and several other nearby South Pacific atolls.
Project Shoal was an underground nuclear test that took place on October 26, 1963, approximately 30 miles (48 km) southeast of Fallon, Nevada.
An overground granite monument marks the site of the only US atomic bomb tests east of the Rocky Mountains. Part of Project Dribble, these two bombs were aimed at finding out whether a country could muffle the shock wave from a nuclear explosion by setting it off in an underground cavern. The site is accessed by appointment only.
On September 10, 1969,the United States Atomic Energy Commission detonated a 40-kiloton nuclear bomb (nearly twice as powerful as the one dropped on Hiroshima at the end of World War II) 8,400 feet (2.5 km) beneath the rural community of Rulison, Colorado.
The equipment was left in place, including the 5 million-pound (230,000-kg) instrumentation payload, the crane, the wiring, and many of the recording trailers. A restricted area, public tours are facilitated through the Department of Energy (DOE) field office in Las Vegas.
Normally off-limits to civilians, the scene of Trinity's detonation is open to the public the first Saturday of April and October each year.
On June 24, 1957, a group of scientists with the Atomic Energy Commission were preparing for an imminent blast.
On July 16, 1945, the first nuclear explosion occurred a few hundred miles south of Los Alamos, New Mexico. Known as the Trinity test by J. Robert Oppenheimer, the director of the Los Alamos Laboratory, it was the start of the age of nuclear weapons. From that day until 1992, the US alone conducted more than 1,000 nuclear tests. And, perhaps surprisingly, many of the sites where these earth-shattering explosions took place can still be visited today.
Intrigued? Click on to discover nuclear testing sites you can visit.
Nuclear testing sites: craters and cities you can visit
How about exploring these nuclear testing sites on your upcoming vacation?
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On July 16, 1945, the first nuclear explosion occurred a few hundred miles south of Los Alamos, New Mexico. Known as the Trinity test by J. Robert Oppenheimer, the director of the Los Alamos Laboratory, it was the start of the age of nuclear weapons. From that day until 1992, the US alone conducted more than 1,000 nuclear tests. And, perhaps surprisingly, many of the sites where these earth-shattering explosions took place can still be visited today.
Intrigued? Click on to discover nuclear testing sites you can visit.