Found New Installation With Google Earth

I found this installation over Yucca Lake on Google Earth. Please be gentle as I'm not sure what it is.

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[edit on 7/10/2006 by TheRanchMan]

I assume it´s a nuclear testfacility/bombing range as the ground is covered with what seems like craters just north of the images you posted. Also it´s very close to Area 51.

Yucca Lake is the heart of Area 6 at the Nevada Test Site.

It includes the Control Point (CP) complex that serves as the command center, air operations center, and timing and firing center for the explosive emplacement sites on Yucca Flat, Frenchman Flat, Pahute Mesa, Rainier Mesa and surrounding areas. The CP complex serves as a centralized point of coordination for administrative, scientific and technical matters. Support facilities include a communications building, several radiological sciences and technical laboratories, a fire and first-aid station, and various maintenance and warehouse structures.

Nearby, the Area 6 Construction Facilities provide craft and logistical support to activities in the forward areas (everything beyond the NTS headquarters at Mercury) of the NTS. This area includes equipment storage, heavy-duty maintenance and equipment repair facilities, and a decontamination area.

An 11,000 foot airstrip and nearby weather station are located on the dry lakebed and a smaller paved strip has been constructed off the southeast corner of the dry lake.

Other facilities within Area 6 include the Device Assembly Facility for assembly, disassembly, modification, staging, transportation, testing, maintenance, repair, retrofit, and surveillance of nuclear explosive and subcritical assemblies. There is also a landfill called the Hydrocarbon Contaminated Soils Disposal Site.

Shadowhawk,
Is it still active?

The last full-scale nuclear test at the Nevada Test Site (NTS) was conducted in 1992. Since then the NTS has been designated a National Environmental Research Park and supports peacetime tasks at Department of Energy (DOE) facilities.

NTS covers 1,320 square miles and serves as an outdoor laboratory where scientists and students can conduct research on environmental issues and the compatibility of the environment with energy technology options.

Research activities and include long-term climate effects and atmospheric changes, plant and animal populations and endangered species studies, habitat reclamation studies, groundwater characterization and monitoring, and environmental restoration and waste management technologies.

The Big Explosive Experimental Facility (BEEF) in Area 4 and U1a site in Area 1 are complementary hydrodynamic testing facilities for accumulating data to support the DOE's Stockpile Stewardship Program and to expand the nation's non-nuclear experiment capabilities. Subcritical hydrodynamic experiments take place at the U1a Facility to collect data on the behavior of plutonium, to use in computer calculations of nuclear weapons performance and safety in the absence of actual underground nuclear testing.

The Device Assembly Facility (DAF) was constructed in the 1980s when nuclear testing was still in progress. Its purpose was to consolidate all nuclear explosive assembly functions and to provide a state-of-the-art safeguards and security environment. Now that underground nuclear testing is no longer being conducted, the DAF has other potential uses, including disassembly of the weapons retired from the U.S. stockpile.

Wow, Shadowhawk, you're awesome.

Is there anything particularly mysterious about Area 6?

There is nothing mysterious about Area 6. It contains the facilities I have described above.

The Device Assembly Facility is one of the most interesting features. It looks like a bunker built into the side of a hill. The ceiling of each assembly chamber is designed to collapse in an emergency, burying the contents under tons of sand and preventing the escape of radioactive materials.

While looking at GoogleEarth, people often mistake the DAF for the entrance to some previously unknown underground base. The same with the BEEF, as discussed elsewhere on ATS.

I have visited neary every area on the NTS. It is an interesting place.

... Even the Groom Lake Facility?

Originally posted by tomra
I assume it´s a nuclear testfacility/bombing range as the ground is covered with what seems like craters just north of the images you posted. Also it´s very close to Area 51.

Also where they might have filmed the supposed "Moon Landing", with the help of the craters that look similar on the moon.

Which is also why area 51 is so secret, that it might have been filmed inside of the bunkers.

[edit on 11-7-2006 by puhatek]

Yeah, I found that place too. It's just south a bit from the BEEF. Found it while looking at it on GE. So Area 6? Makes sense. It is the NTS.

This is pretty interesting. I've never heard of Area 6. I was hoping it would be more top secret and mysterious, but whatever. I think Shadowhawk may have already said this, but is it abandoned, or do people still work there?

See my detailed postings (above) about Area 6.

Oh, okay, I thought so. Sorry...