WASHINGTON - Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., Sen. Orrin Hatch and the Utah Senate urged federal officials Wednesday not to conduct the massive blast known as Divine Strake at the Nevada Test Site, arguing Utahns have been burned by government promises in the past.
    “People have died because of previous nuclear testing at the Nevada Test Site,” Huntsman wrote in a letter to Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman. “The people who survived prior testing should not have to fear that the unexpected or unexplained will happen again.”
    Wednesday was the deadline for public comments on the proposed detonation of 700 tons of explosives, which would be used to create computer models to simulate attacks on underground bunkers.
    Some Utahns were concerned it would spread radiation left by Cold Ware atomic bomb tests.
    Huntsman also forwarded transcripts of hearings he sponsored where Utahns aired their opinions on the proposed test.
    Hatch again urged officials to consider moving the test, citing inconsistencies in the information that has been provided to the public and “the lack of public acceptances of this experiment.”
    The Pentagon's Defense Threat Reduction Agency has said that relocating the test would cost about $100 million and set the research back several years, although Hatch says his staff was originally told that it would take $30 million.
    Hatch also suggested that the Energy Department's environmental study on the risk of Divine Strake should be reviewed by a panel of independent scientists.
    On Wednesday, the Utah Senate passed a resolution objecting to the test, stating that “much more needs to be done to assure that there is never a repeat of the immense suffering endured by citizens of Utah and nearby states due to the nuclear fallout from past tests at the Nevada Test Site.”
    Washington and Kane counties, the city of St. George and the town of Springdale also have passed resolutions opposing the test.
    However, Charles Wight, a physical chemist at the University of Utah specializing in explosives tests, said that people are unduly alarmed by the blast.
    “I think a lot of people are very sensitive to what has happened in the past and it's an emotional issue and not a lot of people have taken a careful look at the scientific evidence,” said Wight, who studied the government's analysis at Hatch's request.
    Wight said in an interview that each day Americans are exposed to about 200 times the radiation that would drift off the test site in a worst-case scenario, through things like watching television, taking plane rides or receiving X-rays.
    “It's safe,” Wight said.
    Reno Attorney Bob Hager, who sued to stop the test on behalf of two Western Shoshone Indian tribes and Downwinders, said that, “There is no way this test exercise ought to be allowed to occur.”
    He said his experts can demonstrate that the test is far riskier than the agencies acknowledge.
   Small particles from the explosion, including plutonium left over from past atomic tests, will be carried 1,250 miles by a slow wind and, if they reach the upper atmosphere, could travel around the world.
    “The entire country is at risk from particles [described] in this environmental assessment,” Hager said. “This is the third time they have falsely assured us there is nothing to be concerned about.”
   
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