Ka-boom! Divine Strake critics launch a new fight against plans to set off blasts in Nevada

By Ted McDonough, Salt Lake City Weekly

In February, Utah downwinders celebrated. After months of protest, the U.S. Defense
Department had called off Divine Strake, a plan to ignite 700 tons of explosives
at the Nevada Test Site.

Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. declared victory. But those who sued in federal court to stop
the blast warn the celebrations may have been premature.

Announcing the cancellation of Divine Strake, the Defense Department’s Defense Threat
Reduction Agency said it would find an alternate way to determine if bombs could
destroy underground bunkers. Instead of the giant Divine Strake blast, the tests
would include “confirmatory experiments at a much smaller scale,” the announcement
said. Critics worry that means blasts, albeit smaller, at the Nevada Test Site.

Downwinders, who suffered health problems from past test site experiments, and American
Indian tribes whose ancestral land is used for the tests, sued to stop Divine Strake.
They argued the blast would stir up radioactive dust from earlier decades’ nuclear
testing. Divine Strake would have sent a mushroom cloud as high as 10,000 feet into
the air, potentially spreading radioactive particles into populated areas, they
claimed.

Critics say there is no reason to believe smaller explosions won’t do the same thing.
And, next month, they will ask a federal judge in Nevada to retain oversight of
all blasts at the Nevada Test Site. Now that Divine Strake is canceled, the Justice
Department has asked to dismiss the lawsuit.

“The issue of a smaller blast is one of semantics,” said Rich Miller, an environmental
consultant who has mapped fallout from U.S. nuclear testing and is acting as an
expert witness for those suing the government.

Miller testified in U.S. District Court in Nevada that particles blasted into the
air by Divine Strake could carry radioactive particles small enough to be inhaled
1,200 miles from the test site. Now, he is saying a blast one-fourth the size could
still carry radioactive material into populated areas, given the right wind and
weather conditions.

Plaintiffs’ attorney Robert Hager wants the court at a minimum to order advanced
notice anytime a blast is proposed. He wants notice published in every newspaper
that circulates in a county where test fallout victims were compensated for past
exposure.

“People who have suffered the tragedies of prior weapons testing on the test site
should have actual notice of the fact that kind of activity is planned,” he said.

Based on the testimony of Miller and other experts, Hager will ask the court, essentially,
to draw a line in the sand, determining a size of blast that would require public
notice.

In addition to continued court monitoring, Hager will ask the federal government
to pay the fees of his legal team and scientific experts—a total of $407,000. Winners
are entitled to have their attorneys fees paid, and Hager says he won.

Acting Assistant Attorney General Caroline Blanco, the attorney heading up the government’s
defense of the Divine Strake case, referred calls to the Defense Threat Reduction
Agency’s public affairs office. That office released a two-sentence statement taken
verbatim from a document filed in the court case by Douglas Bruder, the man in charge
of Divine Strake for the Defense Threat Reduction Agency.

“There are currently no DTRA tests planned using open air explosive detonations
at the NTS,” Bruder wrote, and any future explosive experiments would undergo “the
appropriate level” of environmental review.

The Justice Department argues there are no Nevada Test Site blasts for the court
to oversee.

On the subject of legal fees, Justice Department lawyers argued in court papers
the government shouldn’t have to pay because the judge never ruled in the case.

Hager said that’s because the government never gave him a chance to rule. The initial
June date of the Divine Strake blast was canceled 13 days after the downwinders
filed their lawsuit, he noted. And four days later, a second test date was announced
only to be cancelled days after downwinders filed a second, amended, lawsuit.

“Their position, in order to avoid paying our fees and costs, is they just changed
their mind each time,” Hager said. “They changed their mind because they realized
they were going to lose.”