Frenchman Flat is a hydrographic basin in the Nevada National Security Site[2] south of Yucca Flat and north of Mercury, Nevada. The flat was used as an American nuclear test site and has a 5.8 sq mi (15 km2) dry lake bed (Frenchman Lake) that was used as a 1950s airstrip before it was chosen after the start of the Korean War for the Nevada Proving Grounds.[3] Nellis Air Force Base land 12 mi × 30 mi (19 km × 48 km) was transferred to the Atomic Energy Commission on which Site Mercury was constructed on the flat for supporting American nuclear explosive tests.[3] The 1951 Operation Ranger "Able" test (ground zero at UTM Coordinates 923758 on the flat) was the first continental US nuclear detonation after the 1945 Trinity test, and Frenchman Flat also had the only detonation of an American artillery-fired nuclear projectile in the 1953 Upshot-Knothole Grable test using the M65 Atomic Cannon.
- ^ United States Geological Survey. Publications. Dennis Grasso, Geologic Surface Effects of Underground Nuclear Testing: Buckboard Mesa, Climax Stock, Dome Mountain, Frenchman Flat, Rainier/Aqueduct Mesa, and Shoshone Mountain, Nevada Test Site, Nevada, 2003. Retrieved October 29, 2020.
- ^ Daniel J. Bright; Sharon A. Watkins; Barbara A. Lisle (2001). Analysis of Water Levels in theFrenchman Flat Area, Nevada Test Site (PDF) (Report). Carson City, Nevada: United States Geological Survey [Water-Resources Investigations Report 00-4272]. Retrieved 2011-12-09.
- ^ a b Operation Ranger: Shots ABLE, BAKER, EASY, BAKER-2, FOX; 25 January-6 February 1951 (PDF) (Report). Defense Nuclear Agency. Retrieved 2011-12-09.