Editing Nevada Test Site (section)

==Environmental impact==
Each of the below-ground explosions—some as deep as 5,000 feet (1.5&nbsp;km)—vaporized a large chamber, leaving a cavity filled with [[Radioactive decay|radioactive]] rubble. About a third of the tests were conducted directly in [[aquifer]]s, and others were hundreds or thousands of feet below the [[water table]].<ref name="vart">Ralph Vartabedian. [https://web.archive.org/web/20091116102728/http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-radiation-nevada13-2009nov13,0,3201021,full.story Nuclear scars: Tainted water runs beneath Nevada desert] ''Los Angeles Times'', November 13, 2009.</ref>

When underground explosions ended in 1992, the Department of Energy estimated that more than {{convert|300|MCi|EBq}} of radioactivity remained in the environment at that time, making the site one of the most contaminated locations in the United States. In the most seriously affected zones, the concentration of radioactivity in groundwater reaches millions of picocuries per liter. (The federal standard for drinking water is 20 picocuries per liter (0.74&nbsp;Bq/L).) Although radioactivity levels in the water continue to decline over time, the longer-lived isotopes like plutonium or uranium could pose risks for thousands of years.<ref name="vart" />

The Department of Energy has more than 48 monitoring wells at the site. Because the contaminated water poses no immediate health threat, the department ranked the site as low priority for clean-up.<ref name="vart" /> In 2009, [[tritium]] with a half-life of 12.3 years was first detected in groundwater off-site in [[Pahute Mesa]], near the locations of the 1968 Benham and 1975 Tybo tests.<ref name="LV">{{cite news|author1=Keith Rogers|title=Report: Nuclear testing remnants remain radioactive|url=http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/las-vegas/report-nuclear-testing-remnants-remain-radioactive|access-date=November 26, 2014|work=Las Vegas Review Journal|date=November 19, 2014|archive-date=November 28, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141128065102/http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/las-vegas/report-nuclear-testing-remnants-remain-radioactive|url-status=live}}</ref>

The DOE issues an annual [[environmental monitoring]] report containing data from the monitoring wells both on and off site.<ref name="LV" />

[[Janice C. Beatley]] started to study the botany of the Nevada test site in 1962 when she created 68 study sites. The intention had been to study the effect of radiation on the plants but this plan had to be changed when the United States abandoned atmospheric testing in 1963. The sites however became important because they recorded long term change through 1980. Much of her data was never published; however it was all transferred to the [[United States Geological Survey]] after her death. It was "an ideal place to conduct long-term ecosystem research."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/FS-040-01/|title=FS-040-01 Monitoring Of Ecosystem Dynamics In The Mojave Desert: The Beatley Permanent Plots|website=pubs.usgs.gov|access-date=2020-04-21|archive-date=July 5, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210705230338/https://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/FS-040-01/|url-status=live}}</ref>