LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Before Las Vegans were entertained by the erupting volcano of The Mirage, the pirate show at Treasure Island or the dancing fountains of the Bellagio, they had the mushroom clouds of the Nevada Test Site.
During the Cold War, more than 900 nuclear weapons were detonated at what's now known as the Nevada National Security Site — 100 of them above ground.
VIDEO | Steve Sebelius reports the latest on the fight against nuclear testing in Nevada
The telltale mushroom clouds were visible from downtown Las Vegas.
But explosive testing in the United States stopped in 1992, about four years before the U.S, signed (but never ratified) the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. Russia stopped its tests in 1990, and China in 1996.
Since then, scientists have used computer modeling and so-called subcritical tests — which explode nuclear material without causing a nuclear chain reaction — to verify the viability of the nation's nuclear arsenal.
The only nation to detonate a nuclear weapon this century is North Korea, which conducted its last test in September 2017.
But now, Nevada's elected officials are concerned that nuclear weapons may again be tested here, after President Donald Trump declared on his Truth Social platform on Oct. 29 that the tests should resume immediately.
"Because of other countries testing programs, I have instructed the Department of War to start testing our Nuclear Weapons on an equal basis," Trump wrote. "That process will begin immediately."
The remark drew immediate protests from Nevada officials, fearing the national security site would be used once again for the tests.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright was quick to clarify the president's remarks, however, saying in a Fox News interview on Nov. 2, there would be no explosive nuclear tests. Instead, he said, "subcritical" testing would be done.
"Americans near historic test sites such as the Nevada National Security Site have no cause for concern," he added.
But that assurance hasn't quelled the concerns of Democratic members of Nevada's congressional delegation. They all signed a letter to Wright, Trump, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Brandon Williams, administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration, objecting to renewed testing.
In the letter, the members ask officials to reaffirm the U.S. moratorium on explosive nuclear testing, to conduct an assessment of the health, environmental and economic impacts of testing, as well as a cost estimate for conducting the tests.
And they didn't stop even there. Reps. Susie Lee and Steven Horsford, both D-Nev., have introduced a bill that would ban nuclear tests without congressional approval.
Under the bill, the president would have to notify Congress that he or she wanted to conduct tests, because a foreign state had conducted a test or because there's a technical need for a test. Congress would then have to approve a joint resolution to allow the tests.
A companion measure in the Senate is sponsored by Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen, both D-Nev., and Sen. Chris Coons, D-Md.
"This [Trump] directive threatens to reawaken one of the darkest chapters in our state's history, endangers American lives and undermines decades of bipartisan work to keep our nation and the world safe from the devastation of nuclear war," Lee said at a news conference this week. "I'll continue to stand up to this administration's reckless call to resume explosive nuclear testing and fight to ensure that the victims of our country's nuclear legacy receive care for the exposure to toxic radiation."
But that bill doesn't go far enough for Rep. Dina Titus, a former UNLV political science professor who wrote the book "Bombs in the Backyard" about Nevada's nuclear past.
Titus has a bill of her own — backed by 19 co-sponsors, none from Nevada — that would ban explosive nuclear testing outright.
She says that other nations would use the resumption of tests by the United States as an excuse to expand their own arsenals.
"If we were to start, then they would, because the minute Trump said he wanted to start testing again, then Russia came out and said, 'Well, we're going to do it, too.' And China started putting in some infrastructure in place at their testing center," she said. "So you will start an international arms race, if we are the ones who start testing."
Titus also said that the premises of the Lee/Horsford bill were too lenient, especially if rogue state North Korea resumes testing, or if the administration declares a need to do so.
"Absolutely, you can't trust Trump, he changes his mind every other minute, and he takes the position 'my mushroom cloud is bigger than your mushroom cloud,' so you don't know what he's going to do," Titus said, describing her bill as "a better idea."
It's not clear that any of the bills will pass, however, since they are all authored by Democrats, while the House and Senate are controlled by Republicans.
Still, experts say it would take some time to prepare for an explosive nuclear test.
In the meantime, people like Las Vegas native Jennifer Callahan Page, whose parents and grandfather all worked at the test site, are opposed to resuming tests. She says her family members all died of illnesses linked to radioactive exposure at the site.
Even worse, she says, she's developed symptoms of her own that she believes were caused by contaminated clothing that her mother brought back to the childhood home where she still lives to this day.
Page says tests above or below ground aren't needed and could harm future generations.
"We have done so much work, there's no testing that needs to be done anymore," she said. "We understand the tests. We understand what happens. We don't need to test more in order to be able to do what needs to be done."
