þÿ<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>News Update 8/16/06</TITLE> <META NAME="description" CONTENT="An online resource for monitoring nuclear safety issues that effect citizens of New Mexico and the world."> <META NAME="keywords" CONTENT="WIPP Waste Isolation Pilot Project Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety wipp CCNS ccns DOE Department of Energy nuclear weapons nuclear transportation radioactive radioactive waste plutonium pit trigger production LANL Los Alamos National Laboratories nuclear waste disposal nuclear radionuclides radioactive air emissions Clean Air Act clean air act ecology carlsbad new mexico Ca rlsbad New Mexico environmental protection non profit activism"></HEAD> <BODY TEXT="#000000" LINK="#BE0000" VLINK="#EB0000" ALINK="#858585" BACKGROUND="../graphix/bgtile.gif"> <TABLE BORDER=0 WIDTH=632><TR><TD> <A HREF="../index.html"><IMG SRC="../graphix/logosmall.gif" WIDTH=182 HEIGHT=63 BORDER=0></A><BR> <DIV ALIGN=center> <TABLE WIDTH=500 BORDER=0><TR> <TD><br> <p><FONT FACE="ARIAL,HELVETICA"><SMALL><font color="#000000"><a href="#Devine">Divine Strake Detonation May Come to New Mexico<p></a></small> <br> <br> <p><FONT FACE="ARIAL,HELVETICA"><SMALL><font color="#000000"><br><b><a name="Devine"></a>Divine Strake Detonation May Come to New Mexico</b><br> <br> <a name="Devine"></a> The Pentagon has announced that they plan to conduct the Divine Strake experiment in mid- to late 2007 at a location yet to be announced. Two possible locations are a limestone quarry located near Mitchell, Indiana and the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. Divine Strake is a planned large-scale, open-air, high explosive detonation to test what capabilities are needed to attack hardened underground targets. The test could produce tons of particulates, cyanide compounds and other airborne pollutants.<p> The Divine Strake test will detonate 700 tons of ammonium nitrate and fuel oil or an equivalent of 593 tons of TNT. The force of the explosion will be approximately five times greater than the yield of the largest conventional weapon in the United States inventory. While the yield of the Divine Strake detonation far exceeds that of conventional weapons, it approximates the force of a low-level nuclear bomb. "This is the largest single explosive we could imagine doing," said James A. Tegnelia, director of the Pentagon's Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), which will conduct the test. He stated that the massive blast would generate a mushroom cloud of dust 10,000 feet in the air.<p> The Pentagon had originally intended to conduct the explosion in a 35-foot pit dug into a limestone ridge at the Nevada Test Site, near Las Vegas, Nevada. However, downwinders in Nevada and Utah, the Western Shoshone Tribe and congressional representatives objected to the initial government risk analysis that said the experiment would have no effect on the health of those downwind. This opposition caused DTRA to delay the test several times and then eventually withdraw the risk analysis.<p> The proposed Mitchell location is a commercial limestone quarry located in Lawrence County, Indiana. It was recently discovered that DTRA had conducted tests there in the summer of 2004 and spring of 2005. The owners released a statement that they had not received a request to conduct Divine Strake in their quarry. Some also question whether the Pentagon would choose that location because they would need to install monitoring and diagnostic equipment to study the blast. The installation would be costly, especially when such equipment is already in place at other sites located in the western United States.<p> Another suggested site is the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. White Sands is managed by the Department of Defense and includes the Trinity Site, where the first nuclear bomb was detonated in 1943 in an above ground test. White Sands currently tests the effect of powerful detonations like Divine Strake against hardened deeply buried targets. It also provides a wider range of testing options because both granite and limestone formations are located on-site.<p> Activists believe that DTRA will attempt to forgo a full environmental impact analysis at the new location similar to their tactics at the Nevada Test Site. Joni Arends of CCNS said, "Changing location does not change DTRA¹s responsibility to the public. It was unacceptable that they ignored the health concerns in the past and it will be unacceptable in the future. They must be held accountable."<p> </font></small></font> <br> <br> <BR> <BR> <A HREF="../index.html"><IMG SRC="../graphix/rad.gif" WIDTH=67 HEIGHT=67 BORDER=0></A> <P><BR> <a href="index.html"><b>Back to News Index</b></A> </TD></TR></TABLE> </div></TD></TR></TABLE> </BODY></HTML>