Timeline / Citizenship, Services, and Sovereignty / 1965: Nuclear weapons tested in Aleutian Islands
1965: Nuclear weapons tested in Aleutian Islands
The Atomic Energy Commission begins detonating nuclear weapons on Amchitka Island, part of the Aleutian Islands of southwest Alaska. The island is currently uninhabited, but evidence of past human occupation there dates back 2,500 years. When Amchitka lacks the right geological conditions for some of the tests, the program is expanded to Nevada.
- Theme
- Federal-Tribal Relations
- Region
- Arctic
Map of nuclear test sites
Courtesy Alaska State Library, Theodore R. Merrell Photograph Collection
Coastline of Amchitka Island, Alaska, 1971
Courtesy of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Archives
Cannikin warhead being lowered into test shaft, Amchitka underground test site, Amchitka Island, Alaska, 1971
Courtesy of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Archives