Activists opposing the Divine Strake explosion are not claiming victory because the federal government has delayed the enormous blast, which had been set for June 2 at the Nevada Test Site.
"They still don't get it," said Robert R. Hager, the Reno attorney whose legal filing prompted the government to say it was putting off the explosion until at least June 23. In his opinion, the National Nuclear Security Administration still wants to ignite 700 tons of conventional explosives.
"This is no time to celebrate victory," said Peter Rickards, an Idaho Falls podiatrist who served nine years on an advisory panel for the Centers for Disease Control for a radiation exposure study.
On Tuesday, Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, wrote to James T. Tegnelia, director of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, about the test. The agency and the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) are planning the explosion.
Hatch said he welcomes the fact that the agency and the NNSA accepted his invitation to discuss Divine Strake at a town hall meeting in St. George.
The senator had these questions: Is there a possibility that contaminated soil could become airborne during the explosion? How close is the U16a tunnel area (where six underground nuclear tests were held) to the Divine Strake location? Could radioactive material become dislodged from the U16a site?
Hatch wrote that his objective is "to ensure that this proposed test will not result in further radiological exposure to the citizens of Utah and those of the downwind area."
Concerned about fallout for years, Rickards said a major worry about Divine Strake is that radiation left in the ground from nuclear blasts in the 1950s and '60s could become airborne in the mushroom cloud that Divine Strake is expected to release.
"They are only going to detonate this bomb when the wind is blowing northward toward Idaho and Utah," he said.
"If it was as safe as they claim and nothing would leave the site, they certainly could detonate it when the wind is blowing toward Vegas. But they refuse to."
Hager represents the Winnemucca Indian Tribe and others in a federal lawsuit seeking to halt the blast. One of the plaintiffs is Steve Erickson, a Salt Lake City anti-nuclear activist.
On Friday, Hager filed an "emergency motion" in the case, which is pending in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas. He sought documents that would show the test to be safe.
The federal government responded on Monday, asking for more time. The filing was accompanied by a declaration by Jay H. Norman, acting manager of the NNSA's Nevada State office.
A revised environmental assessment was released on Friday, Norman noted. As of Tuesday, the government intended to issue a revised decision document on the planned test. Because of that, the test has been delayed.
"The proposed detonation of Divine Strake will take place no earlier than June 23, 2006," Norman wrote.
Erickson said several factors influenced the government to delay Divine Strake by three weeks: the lawsuit, opposition from the Utah and Nevada congressional delegation and Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., and the fact that Nevada air quality officials have not yet approved a permit for the test.
"I think they still have every intention of conducting this test if they can," he said. It's questionable whether the government can convince people the explosion would be safe.
Hager said on the basis of documents so far released, "no scientist could claim . . . this blast would be safe."
Rickards said published research shows plutonium 238 is "275 times more radioactive than weapons grade plutonium."
The isotope is present at the Nevada Test Site, located 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas, as are other radioactive particles left over from nuclear weapons testing. If anyone were to inhale a particle of P-238, that would be dangerous, he said.
The federal government's assertion that Divine Strake would re-suspend no radiation and expose no member of the public is "provably a lie," he charged. Radioactive particles deposited after earlier tests would have worked their way into the soil, he said.
"Obviously the Nevada Test Site has uncountable hidden deadly nucleotides buried slightly under the surface," Rickards said. Divine Strake would be detonated 30 feet underground "and lift all the dirt above it."
J Truman, a Malad, Idaho, man who grew up in southern Utah and directs the fallout victim advocacy group Downwinders, said the government is promising to hold town-hall type meetings in Nevada and southern Utah to discuss the test.
"That's a start," Truman added in an e-mail note, "but there should be official public hearings and a comment period so the public can have its say."
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