Help Stop a Possible Nuclear Weapon Program Test Near You

[helderheid]

Help Stop a Possible Nuclear Weapon Program Test Near You - FCNL

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January 5, 2007

The Defense Department is considering conducting a conventional weapons test in Nevada to simulate a nuclear explosion this year to bolster the U.S.’s nuclear weapons program. “Divine Strake,” the name given to the proposed test, continues the administration’s dangerous policy of developing real-world uses for nuclear weapons. But you have a chance to speak out.
Take Action

Divine Strake


The Energy Department and the Department of Defense are holding public information sessions near you next week, January 9, 10 and 11. Here are two ways to express opposition to Divine Strake and the potential use of nuclear weapons in the battlefield.

* You can attend a public session scheduled in Nevada or Utah. Urge your friends, families, and local community leaders to attend these hearings and speak out against testing this weapon in your state.
* The Energy Department is accepting public comments on this proposal before January 24, 2007. Draft a short note opposing this test. You can use our website to send this letter, and you will be able to copy it to your senators and representative. Please write your local media as well and start community outcry against “Divine Strake” and expanding U.S. nuclear weapons capabilities.

Background

The Defense Department is trying to develop “usable” nuclear weapons. The Divine Strake test is designed to simulate the destruction a nuclear weapon would have on an underground bunker or military target. Some analysts argue this is a preview to an attack on Iran. The Defense Department in cooperation with the Energy Department is moving forward with plans to detonate the equivalent of nearly 600 tons of TNT at the Nevada Test Site in south central Nevada. This explosive yield is approximately 50 times the military’s largest conventional weapon. According to Defense Department officials, the Divine Strake test would "send a mushroom-shaped dust cloud 10,000 feet into the atmosphere and release an explosive yield equivalent to detonating 593 tons of TNT." This yield is more than 100 times the size of the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995.

The Nevada Test Site has already been considered once as the site for this test, but opposition from local residents and environmental agencies in Nevada and Utah stalled the Defense Department’s plans.

This effort to “improve” the U.S. nuclear weapons program comes even as the administration is asking Iran and North Korea to freeze their nuclear programs. The U.S. government is sending the wrong message to those two countries and the world about nuclear weapons: “do as the U.S. says, not as it does.”

Read more...
http://www.nukestrat.com/us/stratcom/gs-divinestrake.htm
Public Meetings

Jan. 9, 2007, 6:30-9 p.m.
Cashman Convention Center
850 N. Las Vegas Blvd.
Las Vegas, NV

Jan. 10, 2007, 6:30-9 p.m.
Energy Solutions Arena
310 W. South Temple St.
Salt Lake City, UT

Jan. 11, 2007, 6:30-9 p.m.
Dixie Center
1835 Convention Center Dr.
St. George, UT

Submit Comments by E-mail to:

Divine Strake EA Comments
[e-mail]

Submit Comments by Mail to:

NNSA/NSO
Divine Strake EA Comments
PO Box 98518
Las Vegas, NV 89193-8518

Read more about Divine Strake and other nuclear weapons issues online at www.fcnl.org/nuclear.


To receive email updates on Divine Strake and other nuclear issues from FCNL sign up for the No Nukes email list. To receive a weekly update of events concerning nuclear weapons, disarmament, and nonproliferation, sign up for FCNL’s Nuclear Calendar email list.

[helderheid]

1. Please K&R - we're ALL downwinders

[bananas]

2. Maybe you should post it in E/E

there seems to be a lot of activity there lately.

[helderheid]

4. thanks!

[Monomorphic]

3. This is old news... the military has been doing this kind of thing for

decades now: http://pandachute.com/videos/1_million_pounds_of_tnt

See...