700 ton bomb to rattle Las Vegas at its tourist heart
Okay all you June brides and Las Vegas tourists, June 2 will be a special day in the neon city. According to James Tegnelia, head of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, Vegas residents and tourists alike will be able to see a “mushroom cloud” emanating from a 700-ton explosion scheduled for June 2 at the Nevada Test Site.
Perhaps you’re familiar with the atomic bomb testing southern Nevadans innocently witnessed in the 50s. Today it’s certainly difficult to fathom atomic bomb explosions as a spectator sport.
But that’s just what some of the 3 million June visitors and Las Vegas residents will witness on June 2.
“I don’t want to sound glib here,” remarked Tegnelia, “but it is the first time in Nevada that you’ll see a mushroom cloud over Las Vegas since we stopped testing nuclear weapons.”
Is anyone else alarmed by that statement?
The project is called Divine Strake and if you happened to see local news programs last night, you saw that the media now knows about the planned explosion. Can’t wait to see the flurry of media activity surrounding this.
And today’s Review-Journal, buried on page 8B in the Nevada section (why?), included a story by Tony Batt of the Stephens Washington Bureau about the blast.
Apparently Nevada’s congressional delegation was notified of the planned blast on Dec. 19, 2005 in a letter from the National Nuclear Security Administration. Of course, our elected officials are claiming words like “mushroom cloud” weren’t part of the notice. I’m sure if the words “mushroom” and “cloud” were in the letter they would have taken notice immediately.
Interestingly enough, Nevada Department of Administration official Zosia Targosz wrote in a Jan. 9 letter to NNSA that their proposal “is not in conflict with state plans, goals or objectives.” Great. Bring on the explosion, the mushroom cloud, and any radioactive particles that may happen to be part of the Nevada Test Site’s desert soil!
Perhaps our officials have been working feverishly to control the buzz that’s sure to surround such a significant explosion.
Why Divine Strake? Why now?
The test is part of a U.S. effort to develop weapons capable of destroying deeply buried bunkers housing nuclear, chemical or biological weapons (on foreign soil, of course).
And aren’t you glad the government is planning this test for Las Vegas? Apparently it’s of interest to our Russian friends, as Tegnelia said the Russians have been notified of the test. I’m certainly glad the Russians know what’s happening in Nevada before the Nevadans, or the rest of America for that matter. Thanks guys.
Divine Strake is a test scheduled for June 2, 2006 at the Nevada Test Site sponsored by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency. The 700-ton explosion has a two-fold purpose: 1) to study ground shock effects on deeply buried tunnel structures, and 2) to analyze the air blast produced by the buried charge and its modification as it propagates over the local terrain.
And since this is 2006 and not 1951 when the explosion “Dog” from Operation Buster, with a yield of 21 kilotons, was the first U.S. nuclear field exercise conducted on land (southern Nevada land mind you; with U.S. troops watching unprotected at a mere 6 miles distance), perhaps you’d like to know a little more about the Nevada Test Site.
The Nevada Test Site, approximately 1,375 square miles and larger than Rhode Island, is in Nye County about 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas. From 1951 to 1992 the Nevada Test Site was home to 952 announced nuclear tests (yes, many were unannounced; aren’t they sneaky?). The government also tested nuclear bombs elsewhere, but only 129 of them (many at the Pacific Proving Grounds in the Marshall Islands).
In the 1950s mushroom clouds from the tests were regular tourist attractions in Las Vegas where they could be seen from hotel rooms along the Strip.
Perhaps if you act soon, you could book the Strip’s most elevated hotel room with a view to the northwest and stake out the horizon on June 2. If you’re in town for a wedding you’ll certainly have a digital or video camera. You could probably even make some money selling the images you collect when the Defense Threat Reduction Agency does its thing. Good luck.
And for those of you planning on being June brides, what better day to say your vows than June 2 when for the first time in this century Las Vegas will be home to a mushroom cloud reminiscent of the 50s.
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