Thomas Enyeard with the National Nuclear Security Administration speaks at a Divine Strake session.
Tom Smart, Deseret Morning News
Deseret Morning News, Thursday, January 11, 2007
Divine Strake session criticized
By Joe Bauman
Deseret Morning News
Toward the end of the second
hour of a public information session Wednesday night on the planned
Divine Strake explosion, a man shouted that anyone who was against the
test should say aye.
Thomas Enyeard with the National Nuclear Security Administration speaks at a Divine Strake session. Tom Smart, Deseret Morning News |
As officers were hustling the man
out of the room, shouts came that this was a public meeting. That was
followed by a response, apparently from an officer, "It's not a public
forum."
And that description of the
meeting is one of the many concerns of those who attended the Salt Lake
gathering sponsored by the government agencies that plan to detonate
700 tons of explosive material that opponents fear will stir up
radioactive dust from the same area when nuclear bombs were tested
decades earlier. Another gathering is scheduled for tonight in St.
George.
"They are so afraid of the public," said Mary Dickson, a member of Downwinders United and an anti-nuclear activist.
The man who was escorted out of
the hotel refused to give his name but said he would be present at a
public hearing next week sponsored by Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. A
plainclothes officer who had escorted the man told the Deseret Morning
News he was Sgt. Andrew Oblad of the Salt Lake City Police.
"Yes, I asked him to leave," he said. Oblad added, "I'm done talking to you. Have a nice night."
Instead of a public hearing
format, the government set up information stations around the ballroom
where 23 public affairs officers and others from the test's sponsors
were ready to answer questions about the blast. The Defense Threat
Reduction Agency and National Nuclear Security Administration plan to
detonate 700 tons of fuel oil and ammonium nitrate at the Nevada Test
Site.
NNSA posters lining a side of the
large ballroom showed tunnels with aircraft and machinery, with the
slogan, "Foreign underground facilities are a growing threat." DTRA
officials with posters about the experiment itself were on the other
side of the room.
A stenographer was ready to take
verbatim statements from the public, a new wrinkle after heavy
criticism that the meeting would not be a public hearing. Asked how
many people had spoken to her, she said she was instructed to say
nothing.
Asked why the agencies had not
said earlier that oral comments would be taken as well as written
statements, Kevin Rohrer of NNSA at the Nevada Test Site said, "You
can't get every detail in every press release," but any comments would
be considered part of the record.
The agencies have also been criticized for changing the location of the meeting the day before it was to take place.
Asked his opinion about the
safety of the test, Rohrer said, "My personal feeling is that I would
have no reservations to stand downwind from this experiment, on the
border of this site, with my children and watch the explosion go off."
Dickson said, "When we came in
tonight we were told that this is not a public forum, they repeated
that several times. ... They don't want any other viewpoints here."
Danielle Endres, assistant
professor, department of communications at the University of Utah, who
studies the public meeting process, said the process generally is
flawed.
"It's a stacked deck, exactly,
stacked against public participation. And in general it's a stacked
deck for a decision that's already been decided," she said.
"My primary concern is for the
well-being of life on this planet," said Tom King, Salt Lake City.
Besides damage from radioactive isotopes at the test site, he said, he
is worried about the government's intentions.
"They want to see what a little nuke will do to underground facilities," King said.
"I came to this public forum
hoping that I would hear a clear and concise, comprehensive
presentation," said Julie Mack, Salt Lake City. "And what I found were
stations set up where there's 10 people waiting at each station. I
can't hear, I can't make sense of the progress of explanation, I am
walking away feeling disappointed and frustrated."
Jim Brentz, Draper, had a view
that was different from the majority attitude: "I don't think Divine
Strake is anything to be concerned about," he said. He was "exposed and
saturated with nuclear fallout" while a soldier at the test site during
1955 explosions, he said.
He said he was pleased by the public information session.
However, spokeswomen for Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, expressed disappointment about the forum.
E-mail: bau@desnews.com
© 2007 Deseret News Publishing Company
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