'Mushroom cloud' remark sparks meeting with Reid

[NVMojo]

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Harry Reid is scheduled to meet on Thursday with the federal official who said last week that a 700-ton blast in June at the Nevada Test Site would send "a mushroom cloud over Las Vegas."

James Tegnelia, head of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, has been criticized by Reid for making "irresponsible and inflammatory comments" about the non-nuclear experiment, which will use conventional explosives.

"My ultimate goal is to understand (the reason for the test) and see if it's necessary that we do something to stop it. Right now, I don't know," Reid, D-Nev., said on Tuesday.

Tegnelia told reporters on March 30 that the test is part of an effort to develop weapons that can destroy underground bunkers housing nuclear, chemical or biological weapons.

more...

http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2006/Apr-05-Wed-2006/news/6709537.html

[ChristianLibrul]

1. Hush A Boom!

New, big bomb to be tested right about the time HammerBoy DeLay leaves office. Which event will overshadow the other?

[Syrinx]

2. I don't understand

Does Reid think it may actually be a nuclear test? Doesn't the administration say it's a conventional bomb, but so powerful that it indeed will create a mushroom cloud?

[TaleWgnDg]

3. My first reaction is . . . would that conventional 700-ton blast

kick-up dirt, soil, rocks, etc., that may be radioactive from old nuclear blasts? Seriously. And, if so, who would be endangered if at all?

[DLnyc]

4. My understanding of the history of nuclear testing in Nev. would

lead me to say that any radioctive matter from previous tests is way too far underground to be 'kicked up' (Like half a mile or a mile??)

However, I would say that this testing plan is a) evidence that the neo-con killer-cult's lust for destruction and death is far from satisfied yet and b) yet another blaring neon sign emphasizing that these guys have done nothing but blow things up, steal money and grab power and haven't fixed ONE GODDAMNED THING IN SIX FUCKING YEARS!

(sorry for ranting, just something about big explosions makes me edgy)

[dcfirefighter]

5. Some is still more or less on the surface

you can't leave the roads in the Nevada Test Site in certain areas because of contamination. If you did you'd have to be decontaminated. They use contaminated areas, for among other things, training emergency responders to deal with radiological emergencies. That being said, the total site is HUGE, and they could no doubt find an area to blast without fear of kicking up contaminated dust.

[bananas]

6. That raises the question

if this is to test the ability of bunker-busters to destroy underground sites containing nuclear/biological/chemical materials, won't they need a way of testing how that stuff gets dispersed?
In other words, are they going to bury containers of flu virus at the test site and see how many people show up at doctors office with the flu?

[NNadir]

7. Many nuclear tests in Nevada were above ground.

Ninety-nine of them to be exact.

It is estimated variously that many thousands of people actually died over the long term from these tests. These people are called the "down-winders." The only reason for having the tests was to generalize the experience to all humanity, to see if everyone could, in theory be killed by nuclear weapons. The hypothesis has been more or less confirmed.

Other underground nuclear tests released significant amounts of radioactive materials to the environment, millions of curies of it in fact. Many of the released isotopes have no decayed and are no longer radioactive. For instance, all of the iodine-131 is gone, as is all of the cesium-136 and cerium-144. These were the most radioactive substances, and many found their way completely around the world. However there are still significant quantities of other isotopes, including the actinides like plutonium, and fission products like strontium-90 and cesium-137.

If you would like to learn more about nuclear weapons testing, and happen to be in Nevada and are not interested in gambling or seeing Wayne Newton or Elvis impersonators, there is a curious, maybe even weird, museum you can visit: The Atomic Testing Museum. http://www.ntshf.org/

I have never been there, but according to the website pictures you can see wonderful mock ups of nuclear weapons.

My personal opinion is that all nuclear weapons in the world should be dismantled as quickly as is possible and the materials in them fissioned in nuclear reactors.