New West Unfiltered Commentary

Divine Mistrake

By Tracy Medley, Unfiltered 5-02-06

In typical form, Sen. Orrin Hatch attempted to ease Downwinders’ concerns over the planned Divine Strake test scheduled to take place on June 2 , at a Nevada testing site, 150 miles east of St. George. The location was originally used for nuclear testing in the 1950’s and 60’s.

Speaking to a group at St. George’s Dixie Regional Medical Center, he initially dismissed the crowd’s trepidation over having a 700-ton, non-nuclear, mega bomb denoted in their back yard and kicking up a dust cloud that could reach upwards of 10,000 ft. “I’m a great stopper,” he said, offering that if he had any real concerns about the test, he would surely put a stop to it.

This; coming from the guy who just last week called global warming, “science fiction,” based on his reading of a Michael Chrichton novel. Dear Sen. Hatch, We know you’re old, but come on dude, do you really expect us to trust you with our health and environmental future after lobbing that bit of “science” at us?

The Pentagon’s Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), who are planning the test continue to assure Utahns and Nevadans that the test will be safe. They’ve promised that the detonation will not kick up any nuclear particles left over from previous testing and there is danger of being exposed to radiation, but they have lied before. Just ask the thousands of downwinders from the 1950’s and 60’s testing who suffered and died from a myriad of cancers. I think this is all the proof Utah needs to know that the federal government finds no quandary in putting our long-term health at risk for the short term knowledge that a 700-ton bomb might help them uncover the one illusive bunker in Iraq hiding all those pesky WMDs.

While Sen. Hatch continues to flip-flop on the issue, Congressman Jim Matheson has been a skeptical critic of the project from the beginning. Earlier this month, Matheson wrote a letter to James Tagnelia, the director of DTRA, stating not only his concern for the safety of the residents surrounding the test site, but also that the test itself was a gateway bomb to the development of new nuclear weapons. Tagnelia denied that the government has any interest in creating new nuclear weapons and that this is an isolated test designed to help the military pick the smallest-yield weapon necessary to destroy a given target. But, Matheson, who lost his father, former Gov. Scott Matheson, to Downwinders cancer, remains unconvinced.
Pete Ashdown, who is hoping to unseat Sen. Hatch in November, has also expressed concern. Speaking at the Salt Lake County democratic convention last week, Ashdown had strong words of criticism for Sen. Hatch’s performance in St. George, drawing roars of applause from the crowd. He reiterated the sentiment in his campaign blog, “A ‘great stopper’ should be able to stop the PFS from hauling and dumping hot nuclear waste in Utah. Last I checked, the congress was in charge of the BLM and not the other way around. Senator, it’s time to put-up or retire, use your much touted ‘seniority’ to stop something that Utahns are opposed to.”

In the spirit of election year fickleness, Hatch and other prominent Utah Republicans took an unexpected cue from their critics with Hatch writing his own letter to the DTRA on Tuesday and releasing a statement saying, “The good people who live downwind from this test site have already been through enough, and I’ve given them my word that I’ll never allow any nuclear testing that could harm them again. I have directed my staff to check into this very closely, and if I’m not satisfied that this will be safe, I’m going to do everything I can to put a stop to it.”

Governor Jon M. Huntsman, also a Republican, released a statement Thursday demanding that the test be relocated. "I believe that, obviously, we need a strong national security position, a strong defense position, and capabilities to protect us abroad. But do the testing somewhere else, where citizens aren't downwind."

Whether this is all just political pandering and lip service from our senior Senator and his Republican friends remains to be seen, but with the lives and health of so many at risk, it can’t hurt having them on our side.

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