'Divine Strake' test fuels Dixie protest
60 rally in St. George against the planned detonation in Nevada
"When I was 10, we would go outside and try to see the mushroom cloud coming up from the atomic tests," said Nordin, who now lives in the St. George area with his wife, Hughette. "Everyone said we might see the cloud and the colors it made in the sky."
Nordin said when he heard of the federal government's plans to detonate a massive conventional weapon, called "Divine Strake," at the Nevada Test Site next month he knew it was time to speak up.
"The government seems to be fighting its own people on this," he said Saturday at a protest rally held at Bluff Street Park. Nordin and many others at the rally said they had family or friends who either died of cancer or were now fighting one of its deadly forms.
Nearly 60 people showed up for the morning rally to share information, listen to speakers, and sign petitions urging Utah Sens. Orrin Hatch and Bob Bennett to stop the blast. Several people carried protest signs, including one person whose sign suggested dropping a bomb on Iraq would be a good idea.
"This is just the beginning of educating this community. It's a good start," said Hughette Nordin, who helped organize the rally and took issue with the "bomb Iraq" placard.
Janet Aumann, who works as a dietician in the medical oncology unit at Dixie Regional Medical Center, said she felt strongly that the rally was where she needed to be on a beautiful Saturday morning in Dixie.
"I've never attended a protest before," she said "But I don't believe these tests are safe, and I want them stopped. I don't trust the government, based on what I've seen happen to people here, the downwinder group."
Downwinder is a term used to describe people who lived downwind from hundreds of nuclear tests conducted by the federal government between 1951 and 1992 at the Nevada Test Site.
Although the public was assured the tests were safe, thousands of Utahns and others who lived and worked downwind from the detonations have since contracted various forms of cancer. The federal government now offers a one-time settlement of from $50,000 to $100,000 to downwinders who qualify under specific guidelines.
The Divine Strake test, planned for June 23, will ignite 700 tons of ammonium nitrate and fuel oil over a limestone tunnel in the Nevada desert. Critics claim the blast will release contaminated soil left from previous tests, while the government insists the explosion will not harm humans or the environment.
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