Same Old Bomb
Divine Strake must be stopped, but so must our current policies regarding nuclear nonproliferation.
by Ben Fulton

Of all the famous passages from Richard Rhodes’ Pulitzer Prize-winning book The Making of the Atomic Bomb, one in particular stands out.

British physicist James Chadwick won the 1935 Nobel Prize in physics for his discovery of the neutron, an achievement that made development of the atomic bomb possible. It was six years later, when Chadwick learned it was possible to separate the isotope uranium-235 and enrich uranium in large quantities, that his life became haunted by the bomb.

“I realized then that a nuclear bomb was not only possible—it was inevitable,” he said during a 1969 interview. “I had many sleepless nights. But I did realize how very, very serious it could be. And I had then to start taking sleeping pills. It was the only remedy. I’ve never stopped since then. It’s been 28 years, and I don’t think I’ve missed a single night in all those 28 years.”

We in Utah can relate. When the Atomic Energy Commission began testing of nuclear weapons at a site north of Las Vegas in early 1951, we were assured in government press releases that everything was on the up and up. The Red Scare of communism was in full effect, and only traitors to their country would dare say the tests shouldn’t go on.

After all those bombs, too many unexplained cases of cancer and leukemia, however, the patriotic people of Utah learned that the AEC knew full well the potential dangers. They just thought it a whole lot better that we catch the fallout brought by northeast winds instead of more populous southern California. Given the fortune our government has since doled out to those who suffered from the fallout, perhaps that was the less expensive option. It still cost plenty, however. The latest Radiation Exposure Compensation Act claims-table states that more than 17,000 claims have been approved at a cost of $1.14 billion. That’s the price of liberty, some say.

More than a few readers have asked, some loudly, why this paper hasn’t covered the proposed Divine Strake test of a 700-ton ammonium nitrate-and-fuel explosion in the Nevada Test Site. Well, seeing that nuclear weapons are the world’s foremost threat to life, I’d rather ask why more of us aren’t concerned about nuclear nonproliferation generally.

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http://www.slweekly.com/editorial/2007/edit_2007-02-01.cfm

But most of the people between Utah and the Appalachian Mountains. My HS chemistry teacher told us of how on the day after a nuke test he would come out in the morning, swipe his car, and then run it past the Geiger counter at school to watch it peg out. I remember as a kid back in the seventies there was a severe concern about radioactive contamination of Wisconsin milk supply. You see, the fallout would come down, go into the soil, get pulled up into the grass, which in turn was eaten by the dairy cattle. Big deal at the time, but the problem was never resolved.

Yes, the little known secret about our country is that our cancer rates have increased in part due to all of the nuclear testing we did in the twentieth century.

Comments about the test can be submitted two ways until February 7.
Written comments can be mailed to:

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

E-mail comments can be sent to: divinestrake@nv.doe.gov

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