They Worked for a Top-Secret Program. Now They’re Dying.

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Everyone has heard of Area 51, the Air Force facility in Nevada focused on experimental aerospace development and—if you believe the conspiracy theories—where the U.S. government has been hoarding alien spacecraft. But few know about another classified facility right next door, nicknamed Area 52.

Area 52 is also known as the Tonopah Test Range, which the Department of Defense and the Department of Energy use for weapons development and testing. It was at this range that, in 1963, the DoD conducted Operation Roller Coaster, in which radioactive material was detonated with conventional explosives, creating what is colloquially known as a “dirty bomb.”

The Tonopah Test Range takes its name from an old silver mining town with a population of just 2,000 people. There’s an unspoken rule in Tonopah: You do not ask about work. Employees at the range can’t tell their friends and families about what they do—and locals know not to ask.

There’s another thing that is widely understood in Tonopah: the price a lot of the men who were stationed at the range have paid for their service.