Planning and Building DRI's Southern Nevada Campus Expansion

The Southern Nevada Science Center Phase II expansion is the result of community-wide discussions and planning. Representatives of DRI, the U.S. Department of Energy, National Nuclear Security Administration Nevada Operations Office, the Nevada Test Site Historical Foundation, Bechtel Nevada, NTS Development Corporation, Los Alamos, Lawrence Livermore, and Sandia national laboratories, the Nevada Science and Technology Center, the Nevada Alliance for Defense, Energy, and Business, and other citizens and stakeholders have been involved since the beginning of the project and remain dedicated to its completion.

DRI President Stephen G. Wells notes, "The planning that has gone into the new DRI building and its components has been extraordinary. And the dedication of the 'brain trust' that has been involved since the project's inception continues, and that collaboration will ensure the completion of the building and the success of its ongoing programs."

The expansion of DRI's Las Vegas campus will house four entities: DRI's Center for Arid Lands Environmental Management (CALEM); an archaeological collection laboratory and repository; the Coordination and Information Center (CIC); and an NTS museum exhibit area.

The mission of the Center for Arid Lands Environmental Management is to assist land managers and others with science and engineering-based desert ecosystem management, sustainable development, stewardship, adaptive management, and restoration ecology. CALEM integrates capabilities in land, air, and water sciences. Field studies, laboratory analysis, numerical modeling, remote sensing, geographic information systems (GIS), and environmental information management are all used in CALEM's programs designed to address arid land issues spanning spatial and temporal scales.

The archaeological repository maintained by DRI for the U.S. Department of Energy will house the U.S. Department of Energy's artifact collection from central and southern Nevada. The collection consists of approximately 500,000 artifacts. The new repository will provide adequate space and equipment to store, study, and conserve the collection in a proper climate-controlled environment.

The Coordination and Information Center's mission is to collect and consolidate, for long-term preservation, historical documents, records, and data dealing with U.S. nuclear testing. The number of documents in the CIC is expected to grow from today's 360,000 documents to over 450,000 as more documents become declassified.

The museum, which is an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution, will include both permanent and rotating exhibits and will feature audiovisual presentations, guided tours, lectures, workshops, demonstrations, special events, school programs, and a variety of community outreach activities.