ATOMIC TESTING MUSEUM: LOCAL SMITHSONIAN AFFILIATE CONTRACTS
FOR INSTALLATION OF MULTI-MILLION-DOLLAR EXHIBITS

Las Vegas - With the recent presentation of a $1.6 million purchase order to museum exhibit specialists Maltbie, Inc., the Las Vegas-based Atomic Testing Museum finalized arrangements for the fabrication and installation of a wide array of permanent exhibits capturing a 50-year slice of Cold War history as it unfolded at the Nevada Test Site, the nation's proving grounds for nuclear weapons. Affiliated with the world-renowned Smithsonian Institution and located in the Desert Research Institute science center at East Flamingo and Swenson, the Atomic Testing Museum includes a permanent 8,000 square-foot gallery to be filled with unique exhibits featuring stunning graphics and incorporating theatrical devices, dramatic multi-media presentations and "atomic pop culture" items. The museum will also feature interactive exhibits for personal exploration, exciting first-person narratives and memoirs from on-site workers and test witnesses as well as many seldom seen artifacts and documents.

The permanent exhibits, representing an investment of more than $4 million, have been under development since 1997 by a design team led by Andre & Knowlton Associates, an award-winning design firm based in Victoria, British Columbia. Andre & Knowlton

Associates has specialized in museum exhibits for more than 20 years, with prior work including projects for the Los Angeles County Natural History Museum, the Hong Kong Museum of History, and the NASA Starship Gallery in Houston, among others. The design team included members of the Nevada Test Site Historical Foundation (parent organization of the ATM) and scientists and administrators from the Desert Research Institute and the Department of Energy, with help from the national defense laboratories.

The actual exhibits will be completed and installed by New Jersey-based Maltbie, Inc., a specialist in fabricating and installing multi-faceted exhibit projects in museums and visitor centers world-wide. In business for over 40 years, Maltbie's work has received multiple awards from such prestigious organizations as the American Association of Museums, the Royal Institute of British Architects and the Industrial Designer Society of America. Along with the exhibits for the Atomic Testing Museum, Maltbie's current assignments include projects for the Smithsonian Institution's Behring Hall of Mammals, the Liberty Bell Center and the National Track and Field Hall of Fame.

With the completion of the permanent exhibits, the Atomic Testing Museum will take its place as a world-class facility offering the public an in-depth look at the history of the Nevada Test Site and the U. S. nuclear weapons testing program. The result of a unique partnership between the Desert Research Institute, the National Nuclear Security Administration's Nevada Site Office and the Nevada Test Site Historical Foundation, the ATM is housed on the ground floor of the Frank H. Rogers Science and Technology Building at 755 East Flamingo Road.

The building also houses The Rogers Center for Environmental Remediation and Monitoring, the Center for Arid Lands Environmental Management and the National Nuclear Security Administration's nuclear testing archive, a collection of historic records about test site workers. The Atomic Testing Museum currently offers a 2,000 square-foot temporary gallery with various traveling displays and the ATM Store, a specialty gift shop. Both are free to the public and open weekdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. except holidays.

Although the permanent exhibit areas of the Atomic Testing Museum will probably be open to the public in mid-December, the official grand opening, with dignitaries and a formal "ribbon cutting," will take place in February or March of 2005. Troy Wade, chairman of the NTSHF, said the grand opening date will be chosen in July or August as progress is measured.