By PATRICE ST. GERMAIN
HURRICANE - Richard L. Miller, environmental exposure specialist and author of the US Atlas of Nuclear Fallout, 1951-1962, has two questions about the revised environmental assessment for the Divine Strake experiment.
Is there an increased risk of cancer? And how much of an increase?
Divine Strake, the name for a 700-ton fuel oil and ammonium nitrate bomb, is not nuclear, but the site of the proposed test is only a mile away from where nuclear testing was conducted at the Nevada Test Site.
Miller, who documented fallout from the nuclear testing from St. George to the eastern seaboard in his book, said if the Divine Strake test takes place, the resulting cloud would raise radioactive isotopes in the soil and deposit the contamination anywhere in the United States.
"Unless they (the Defense Threat Reduction Agency and National Nuclear Security Administration) have a crystal ball, they can't prove to us or anyone else that the material will properly disburse or that there won't be an increased risk of cancer in the population," Miller said.
Miller said because the material raised by the bomb could not be kept on site and because it's a repository for radioactive isotopes, the Divine Strake test should not take place at the Nevada Test Site.
The draft environmental assessment has been revised several times and a finding of no significant impact was issued. The finding, or FONSI, was withdrawn after health and safety concerns about the test were raised.
Reno attorney Robert Hager, who is representing the plaintiffs - namely the Winnemucca Indian Colony - in the Divine Strake case, filed a lawsuit in April 2006 that is pending in federal district court in Las Vegas. He said he has reviewed the December draft EA.
Hager said for the first time the agencies admit that there are radionuclides in the soil that will become airborne, and that radioactivity will be transported by the mushroom cloud outside the test site, and that downwind populations may be exposed to radioactivity.
Hager was also critical about the timing of the release of the revised draft before the Christmas and New Year's holidays, effectively reducing the 30-day public comment period for the draft, which is due by Jan. 24.
"It was designed to limit public comment," Hager said of the draft, which gives two options - do nothing or do the test.
At this point, Hager has done all he can do for his clients unless another FONSI is filed, and if that happens, he will again challenge the finding of no significant impact in court.
Not only are there concerns about the test and environmental assessment but how the meetings - scheduled in Las Vegas, Salt Lake City and St. George - are being conducted.
Vanessa Pierce, director of HEAL Utah, said in a press release that initially public hearings for the Divine Strake blast were to be scheduled, but now only open house forums were to be held.
"A hearing implies that public input will be solicited, but this event is nothing more than a public relations ploy, allowing the Pentagon and Department of Energy to shower the public with propaganda," Pierce said.