AT WORK IN THE FIELDS OF THE BOMB - Twill

Tapered Line-of-Sight Pipe, “N” Tunnel
This 875-foot steel pipe is dug into the side of Rainier Mesa in Area 12 of the Nevada
Test Site. The tunnel tests the impact of radiation from a nuclear warhead on other
nuclear warheads and on military communications equipment. At the far end of the
tunnel is the “Zero Room,” which contains the warhead that will be detonated. When
it explodes, radiation comes down the pipe at the speed of light, followed by its
expanding shock wave. But within 16 milliseconds, huge blast doors explode shut,
trapping the shock wave in the Zero Room so that only radiation hits test equipment in
the pipe. The pipe is being readied for the test code-named “Misty Rain.
Area 12, Nevada Test Site, Nye County, Nevada. October 29, 1984.
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