Test Site museum to get first part of Bechtel grant

Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2003 | 8:43 a.m.

In a brief ceremony today, the Bechtel Foundation was to present the Nevada Test Site Historical Foundation with the first portion of a $300,000 three-year grant to develop a historical atomic testing exhibit.

The Atomic Testing Museum is slated to open next year on the ground floor of the three-story, 66,000-square-foot Frank H. Rogers Science & Technology Building on the Las Vegas campus of the Desert Research Institute.

The museum will feature exhibits depicting the role of the Nevada Test Site in the Cold War and the site's current missions. It will also contain a traveling exhibit from the Smithsonian Institution, which is affiliated with the museum.

The museum is another effort to keep the historical significance of the Nevada Test Site, where the federal government experimented with nuclear weapons from 1951 to 1992, in the public eye.

In July, the Senate Energy Committee approved a bill that would designate the Test Site and other sites that played a major role in the Cold War as national historical landmarks. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., introduced the legislation in February. The bill also has the support of the Energy Department and the Bush administration.

This morning, Frederick A. Tarantino, president and general manager of Bechtel Nevada, was to present the check to Troy Wade, Nevada Test Site Historical Foundation president, and Alan Austin, DRI vice president for finance administration.

Bechtel Nevada is a consortium of companies which manage and operate the Nevada Test Site, 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

The building is named for Frank H. Rogers, a senior administrator in the early days of the Test Site. It is a new addition to DRI's campus at 755 E. Flamingo Road near Swenson Avenue.