Boise, Idaho -- A proposed bomb test brought together concerned citizens in Boise Saturday afternoon.  The group hopes to put a stop to a 700-ton explosion slated for Southern Nevada.  A detonation That could spread radioactive dust across Idaho.

Jeremy Maxand is the executive director of the Snake River Alliance, an Idaho-based nuclear watchdog group, and says the test is another example of the Department of Defense's arrogance.

"The government feels completely okay detonating a bomb like this when there are people, thousands of people, who have not received compensation, or been granted eligibility for compensation, like in Idaho, for the damage that's already been done."

Tona Henderson is an Idaho downwinder who's seen half a dozen family members die from cancer.  She says radioactive fallout from more than a thousand nuclear weapons tests during the 1950s and 1960s harmed the health of thousands of Idahoans.

"I've had 26 people in my family suffer from cancer.  My mother had breast cancer, my brother had testicular cancer," said Henderson.

These days the community of downwinders affected by Cold War era testing worry about the government's proposed detonation of a bomb termed "Divine Strake."  Maxand says it isn't a good idea to go kicking up the very dust where former nuclear fallout rests.

"The concern is that where they're doing the test at the Nevada Test Site is an area that is heavily contaminated from past nuclear weapons testing, and that this blast will re-suspend the contamination in the soil from past tests."

The Defense Threat Reduction Agency is part of the U.S. Department of Defense says the bomb will help them learn how the blast affects underground tunnels and structures.

Downwinders and nuclear specialists like Richard Miller, who's written several books on nuclear fallout, question the purpose of the test since this bomb is so much larger than ones typically used for so called "Bunker Busting."

"The idea is that they want to test Bunker Busters, but if you look at the size of a typical Bunker Buster which is just a couple of pounds of a nuclear device, and then compare it with 700 tons of ammonium nitrate and fuel, you have to ask yourself is this the proper test."

Maxand and many others speculate that this test, along with the government's Reliable Replacement Warhead program, meant to revamp the country's nuclear arsenal, may lead to renewed nuclear testing.

"If our country starts to build new nuclear weapons, or radically changes the existing arsenal like they are with the Reliable Replacement Warhead Program, those weapons will have to be tested.  If those weapons are tested at the Nevada Test Site, the contamination will likely end up being blown toward states like Idaho."

The Defense Threat Reduction agency has agreed to conduct an informational meeting on the proposed Divine Strake bomb test Sunday Jan. 28.  It will be held at the Grove Hotel on the second floor from 12 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.  There will be an opportunity for public comment.