Test blast protested
Anti-detonation petition will be delivered to 2 Utah senators
"This round of petitions is just the beginning, a first installment of Utahns finding their voices," said Helene Stone, one of the St. George residents organizing a petition drive that has garnered more than 600 signatures against the proposed weapons test called Divine Strake.
"While the Pentagon tries to develop new nuclear weapons for use on 'hard targets' out there, we could be the first line of 'soft targets' here. And we're saying 'no,' " she said.
Stone said she would deliver the petitions to the local offices of Sens. Bob Bennett and Orrin Hatch today. If no one is available to receive the petitions, Stone said she will fax the documents to the senators' headquarters in Washington.
Hatch spokesman Peter Carr said Wednesday evening the senator continues to raise concerns over the proposed explosion at the Nevada Test Site, about 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
The planned detonation of 700 tons of conventional explosives would take place about 1.1 miles from past underground nuclear explosions. Critics fear the explosion will disturb dangerous particles of radiation, while the federal government insists the tests are safe.
"The meeting in St. George is going to proceed, and because of the many concerns that have been raised by those along the Wasatch Front, I'm also requesting that DTRA hold a meeting in Salt Lake City as well," Hatch said in an e-mailed response to a Deseret Morning News request for comment. "The DTRA hasn't provided me the data we need to determine the safety of this test. We all need to review that data so we can have an informed public discussion."
Stone said Dixie residents are worried that the purpose of Divine Strake is to identify the "smallest proper nuclear yield necessary to destroy underground facilities."
"This is a step in the direction of the development of a new generation of nuclear weapons," she said. "People in the rest of the country should understand that they, too, are potential victims. Fallout maps from the 1950s and 1960s show that very little of the country was spared. We are all downwinders."
The term downwinders is used to describe people who contracted specific cancers from exposure to radiation released by previous nuclear-weapons tests conducted at the Nevada Test Site. Patients who qualify under federal guidelines can receive from $50,000 to $100,000 under a federal radiation-exposure compensation program.
"As you know, a court has postponed the test," Hatch states in his e-mail. "It has not been rescheduled. DTRA has assured me that the test will not go forward until we have the data in hand, we've had time to analyze it and the public has been fully informed."
E-mail: nperkins@desnews.com
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