Divine Strake gets blasted

[helderheid]

Divine Strake gets blasted
S. Utahns see a downwinder déjÀ vu of radiation poisoning

By Mark Havnes
The Salt Lake Tribune
Salt Lake Tribune

ST. GEORGE - There is nothing divine about Divine Strake to Iris Mortensen.


The St. George resident believes her veterinarian husband received the cancer that killed him from conducting autopsies on sheep found dead in Millard County in the 1950s.


Mortensen blames radiation from the nuclear tests conducted at the Nevada Test Site in the 1950s for killing the sheep and infecting her husband. Now she's voicing her concerns about Divine Strake, the non-nuclear blast the federal government plans for the same test site.


"It's insanity," she said.


Mortensen was one of about 300 residents of southwestern Utah who gathered at the Dixie Center in St. George on Thursday night to ask questions, voice concerns and hear information from officials with the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, which dreamed up the test.


The proposed explosion would involve 700 tons of ammonium nitrate and cause a blast that many fear would throw into the atmosphere soil contaminated by earlier nuclear blasts at the test site. The tainted dust, critics say, would again blanket southwestern Utah with unacceptable amounts of radiation.


Nuclear tests 50 years ago are blamed for cancers in the population in southwestern Utah. Those sickened by the nuclear testing in the 1950s are known as Downwinders because southwestern Utah was downwind from the blasts.


So far, the environmental assessment being conducted is cautiously optimistic that the test would be safe, say federal officials. But no matter how convincing the officials sounded, Mortensen and many others remain skeptical of Divine Strake's safety.


"After the damage from the first tests, I have a hard time believing the leopard has changed its spots," said Mortensen.

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http://www.sltrib.com/ci_4998530

[Beelzebud]

1. What could they possibly learn by detonating ammonium nitrate?

Unless they're planning another Oklahoma City bombing..

Seriously though. What purpose does this test serve, other than to knock radioactive dust into the atmosphere?

It's not like ammonium nitrate bombs are a new technology...

[helderheid]

2. 1 + 1 does NOT equal 2 here.

[Beelzebud]

3. Good point. Sometimes I forget that common sense doesn't apply here in Bushworld.

[Solo_in_MD]

8. There is a fair amount to be learned, Check some of the prior threads on this topic

[gatorboy]

4. Well, what does Utah expect?

They give Bushie Boy the highest approval rating in the country. That there lets Georgie assume he can do damn near anything he wants with their state and they'll suck it up.

[helderheid]

5. hey - I'M IN UTAH. Besides, the map shows we're ALL downwinders:

[gatorboy]

6. No offense meant.

You've just gotta do something about that crazy portion of the state. :P We're slowly weeding some of them out finally in Arkansas.

[helderheid]

7. :) We're working on it here. Salt Lake City is BLUE, as is Park City, Price, and Moab...

and the rest is getting better. Utah was blue until the late 60s