Senator Wants Reassurances Before Nevada Blast (AP/KUTV Salt Lake City)

[redacted]

SALT LAKE CITY U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch wants reassurances that a massive explosion test planned for Nevada this summer won't disperse radioactive material from past nuclear weapons tests.

Hatch, R-Utah, has joined a group of Congress members voicing concerns about "Divine Strake," the detonation of a 700-ton ammonium nitrate and fuel oil bomb scheduled for June 2 over the Nevada desert.

Although the bomb isn't nuclear, there are concerns that it could shake loose radioactive material from past tests at the Nevada Test Site, about 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

"We need good, clear answers explaining how a test of that magnitude will be able to contain the spread of radioactive particles from previous tests," Hatch said in a release Monday.

http://kutv.com/topstories/local_story_115161456.html

[babylonsister]

1. Is this the blast Reid 'approved'? nt

[Eurobabe]

2. Evidently pols think more people in SW need thyroid cancer

[NNadir]

3. Actually the vast majority of the dangerous radioiodine has decayed

to background. The half-life of I-131, the primary cause of thyroid cancer related to nuclear explosions is 8 days. The short half life is why the iodine is dangerous: The shorter the half-life, the more radioactive a particular isotope is.

This is not to say that the risk from bombing here is zero. There are still undoubtedly significant quantities of Sr-90 and Cs-137, as well as other isotopes widely distributed on this ground, where almost 100 open air nuclear explosions occurred.

The purpose for this activity is war. All war is immoral and all people of good will should oppose this test.