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Stop Divine Strake! - Part 1

Part of the Bush administration's strategy for world domination is a new round of development of "nucular" weapons.  For those of us here in New Mexico and particularly in Albuquerque and Santa Fe/Los Alamos, we stand at ground zero.  The Los Alamos and Sandia Labs will be the focal points for these new demons ready to leap from Pandora's box.  Similarly, our higher education system - particularly UNM/Albuquerque and New Mexico Tech in Socorro -  is in up to it's hips with it's indescriminate desire to grab defense dollars.

Further, the astronomical expense of nuclear weapons development makes NM among the top recipient's of defense department dollars per capita in the nation.  Hmmm.  Why, then, is New Mexico consistently one of the poorest states in the nation?  Can you say "War Profiteers?"

Consistent with the search for non-existent nuclear weapons in Iraq, the Bush administration seeks to develop so-called "bunker buster" tactical nuclear weapons to destroy alleged underground nuclear weapons storage and command & control facilities in Iran, North Korea, or elsewhere

The challenge is that despite the tremendous destructive capacity of nuclear weapons, underground facilities might well survive a nuclear direct hit on the surface or in the air.

Divine Strake is intended to test the effect of 700 tons of chemical explosives (equal to a small nuclear weapon) buried 20 feet below the surface on a series of underground bunkers and tunnels.  It is buried to simulate a missile designed to penetrate the surface to that depth before detonating a nuclear warhead.

The test was to occur at the Nevada Nuclear test site - approximately 65 miles north of Las Vegas - where over 900 nuclear tests have been conducted over the past six decades.  Though this test uses conventional explosives, it would create a plume up to 10,000 feet high and thrust radioactive material from previous tests into the atmosphere creating nuclear fallout that would be dispersed for hundreds or even thousands of miles.

Citizen Alert and Nuke Watch NM have collaborated to produce this video during the period preceeding the scheduled test.  In a victory for grassroots activists, the test has been "delayed indefrinitely" and will now have to conform to NEPA process and an extensive environmental impact report.

Part 2 of this series is available here and Part 3 will be available when editing is completed by Nuke Watch and Citizen Watch.

and here for her
Nuclear Policy
Research Institute