Desert Research Institute to expand

The Desert Research Institute announced plans today for expanding its Southern Nevada Science Center.

DRI President Stephen G. Wells said the 48,000-square-foot addition at Flamingo Road and Swenson Street will provide space and storage of archaeological artifacts from the Nevada Test Site, 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

The historical finds date from when Indian tribes hunted and held sacred ceremonies at the site to the development of 20th-Century nuclear weapons. From 1951 until a 1992 U.S. nuclear test ban, the Test Site experimented with atomic bomb development.

In addition, the space will house the Department of Energy's archives from 50 years of nuclear weapons experiments in Southern Nevada and elsewhere.

The facility will be easily accessible to the public, Wells said.

There will be an exhibit area displaying the history of the Test Site and operated by the nonprofit Nevada Test Site Historical Foundation, Bruce Church, the foundation's president, said.

Church, a former DOE assistant manager for environment, safety, security and health in Nevada, said he watched the early atmospheric tests while milking cows at the family farm in La Verkin, in southern Utah.

The Test Site Historical Foundation was created on April 15 to support a nuclear testing research center and exhibit important materials related to Nevada's role in U.S. defense.

A public reading room is open from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday at DOE's Operations Office in North Las Vegas.

The University of Nevada Board of Regents placed the DRI expansion 16th on its priority list for 1999.

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