Scientists Call Strake Dangerous

By Joe Bauman

The Divine Strake nonnuclear explosion at the Nevada Test Site "would disperse large amounts of radioactive particles into the atmosphere," says a noted pathologist.

Dr. Thomas M. Fasy of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York City, comments on the test’s potentially harmful effects in a document filed with the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Las Vegas office.

The NNSA and the Defense Threat Reduction Agency are planning the detonation of 700 tons of ammonium nitrate and fuel oil. The explosion, dubbed Divine Strake, is intended to give a better idea about how to attack underground fortifications of some enemy.

The proposed test has raised concerns among those living downwind because of past nuclear blasts at the test site, particularly in the 1950s and ’60s. Many "downwinders" blame such tests for cancers and other diseases suffered over the past half-century. The issue has also elicited comments from scientists on both sides of the controversy, some concerned about particulates raised by such a blast, others doubting the possibility for serious harm.

Critical comments by experts were filed with the NNSA by Robert Hager, a Reno attorney for plaintiffs seeking to halt the test. In a telephone interview, he said he had to file the documents by the end of the environmental assessment comment period, which was this past Wednesday. Otherwise, he would not be able to raise the issues later in his lawsuit.

After the federal government makes a decision on the project, he can convert the experts’ comments into legal affidavits, Hager said.

In a transmittal letter to the NNSA, Hager wrote that the explosion "would pose a clear and present threat of irreparable harm" and that if the decision is made to proceed with it, plaintiffs will seek a court injunction.

Fasy added in his written comments that he believes "to a reasonable degree of medical and scientific certainty that the inhalation or ingestion of radionuclides may lead to the development of serious diseases, including various forms of cancer, congenital malformations (birth defects), DNA damage, genetic mutations and sterility….

"Thus, internationally recognized authorities acknowledge that there is no dose of radiation below which a population receiving that dose will not incur an increased risk…. "

Fasy stated that if the explosion happens as planned, "millions of people living downwind of the Nevada Test Site are at risk of inhaling radioactive particles that will be dispersed into the atmosphere."

He said it would be "virtually certain" that such inhalation would result in an increased frequencies of a variety of cancers. "Moreover, the increased risk of developing cancers would be borne disproportionately by the women and children living downwind."

Among others filling comments transmitted by Hager are those by:

– Richard L. Miller of Woodlands, Texas, a certified industrial hygienist and certified safety professional who has worked for the Occupational and Safety Health Administration. He is author of the five-volume "U.S. Atlas of Nuclear Fallout." Miller says the government’s revised draft environmental assessment is deficient.

Area 16, where the blast would take place, "has received contamination from above-ground nuclear tests," he wrote.

Federal fallout maps show Area 16 to be "within the contamination zones" of six nuclear blasts between 1955 and 1957. The bombs produced numerous radioactive isotopes that are likely still active, he wrote.

Miller listed 11 different isotopes with half-lives into many thousands of years, including deadly radioactive plutonium.

He added that the assessment does not include an estimate of the amount of small particles, 2.5 microns in size, that would be stirred up. These particles are able to penetrate into the deepest parts of the lungs, he wrote, citing the Environmental Protection Agency.

The government has two different estimates for the possible height of the resulting dust cloud, he said. They are about 8,158 and 9,750 feet above ground level, which is itself at 1,592 feet above sea level.

"If the debris cloud reaches nearly 10,000 feet altitude above the ground … then it will have exceeded the maximum altitudes achieved by many above-ground nuclear tests," Miller wrote. The debris cloud from one of the tests was tracked to Canada, he added.

There is a significant potential for radioactive particles to be part of the PM2.5 dust lofted by the blast, according to Miller. "If so, these particles can travel for hundreds or thousands of miles with the wind currents and can potentially be inhaled by persons living downwind."

– Michael E. Ketterer, Northern Arizona University. Ketterer wrote that the government did not do sufficient sampling for plutonium contamination at the blast site. "It is likely that the data presented … underestimate the average activity and/or total quantity of plutonium and definitely understate the activities present in the top 1-2 cm. of the soil."

– Diane M. Stearns, Flagstaff, Ariz., professor of chemistry at Northern Arizona University. She notes that the environmental assessment "now admits … (that) ‘since suspended natural radionuclides and resuspended fallout radionuclides from detonation have potential to be transported off of the NTS by wind, they may contribute radiological dose to the public.’"

The issue, she wrote, is the ability of the planners of the test to properly estimate the amount of radioactive particles and radiation to which nearby residents would be exposed.

She called the environmental assessment’s description of those factors as "guestimation."

E-mail: bau@desnews.com