New Mexico out; Nevada most likely site for test explosion (DIVINE STRAKE)

[helderheid]

Divine Strake
By Robert Gehrke
The Salt Lake Tribune

Salt Lake Tribune

Article Last Updated:11/16/2006 01:07:42 AM MST

WASHINGTON - A massive explosion designed to help develop bunker-busting weapons won't be conducted at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, leaving the Nevada Test Site as the most likely location, a New Mexico senator said Wednesday.

The Defense Threat Reduction Agency informed Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., that environmental studies needed to move the Divine Strake test to the New Mexico missile range would delay the test too long.

Domenici said DTRA informed him the test will not be moved to a location other than Nevada. A spokeswoman for the agency could not be reached.

The Defense Threat Reduction Agency proposes detonating 700 tons of explosives above a tunnel on the test site to help it make computer models to predict ground shaking and tunnel damage to perfect bunker busting weapons.

“I understand that keeping these tests in Nevada is the best choice from a technical perspective,” Domenici said. “Moving the test to White Sands would have taken years and delayed development of an ability to predict damage to deeply buried targets like tunnels and bunker busters. Both are increasingly being used by our potential adversaries.”

The test was originally scheduled at the Nevada Test Site last June but was postponed until next spring at the earliest after concerns were raised about the safety of the detonation.

Sen. Orrin Hatch and Rep. Jim Matheson raised concerns that soil contaminated by past nuclear tests could become airborne and spread downwind. A Nevada American Indian tribe and a group of Utah Downwinders - individuals sickened by their exposure to fallout from Cold War tests - have sued to block the test.

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http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_4668755

[helderheid]

1. I'm in Utah and this scares the shit outta me.

[helderheid]

2. More on Divine Strake

The DIVINE STRAKE full scale test is planned to be a large-yield, buried burst detonated at the Nevada Test Site. Divine Strake would appear to be associated with the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator RNEP, or possibly the B61-11 Earth-Penetrating Weapon, a fact that is obscured in most press coverage. Divine Strake is a high-explosive (HE) test sponsored by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) at the Nevada Test Site (NTS). The test is a detonation of a 700 ton buried heavy AN/FO charge above a tunnel structure. The main purpose of the test is to study ground shock effects on deeply buried tunnel structures. Of secondary interest is the airblast produced by a buried charge and its modification as it propagates over the local terrain. Scheduled for the summer of 2006, as of 01 April 2006 the test was planned for 02 June 2006.

DIVINE STRAKE is one of several "DIVINE" efforts under the Hard and Deeply Buried Target Defeat (HDBTD) program. DIVINE WARHAWK consists of deep underground operational tunnel facility defeat demonstrations using advanced weapons at the White Sands Missile Range. DIVINE HELCAT was a 2004 reconstitution exercise to determine reconstitution time for the C3I tunnel facility at Nevada Test Site (NTS). Also in 2004 planning began for DIVINE HATES, which is a WMD production and storage tunnel complex functional defeat effort.

DTRA's FY2006 budget request including furnding to "Conduct the Tunnel Target Defeat Advanced Concept and Technology Demonstration(s) (ACTD) Full-Scale tunnel defeat demonstration using high explosives to simulate a low yield nuclear weapon ground shock environment at Department of Energy's Nevada Test Site. Deliver validated analysis and planning tools to conduct the end-to-end use of nuclear planning tools to characterize and "weaponeer" the full-scale Tunnel Target Defeat Advanced Concept and Technology Demonstration(s) (ACTD) event. ... The Tunnel Target Defeat Advanced Concept and Technology Demonstration(s) (ACTD) will develop a planning tool that will improve the warfighter’s confidence in selecting the smallest nuclear yield necessary to destroy underground facilities while minimizing collateral damage. The focus of the demonstration is to reduce the uncertainties in target characterization and weapon effect/target response. Target characterization uncertainties include those related to determining the target function, layout, operational status, and the geological and geotechnical features. Weapons effects/tunnel response uncertainties are associated with predicting ground shock and tunnel response in layered and jointed media."

The US Department of Energy's (DOE) National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) proposes to provide a test bed to be used by DTRA to conduct a single large scale, open air explosive detonation in Area 16 of the NTS. The proposed detonation, known as DIVINE STRAKE, would occur tentatively in mid 2006 above the existing U16b Tunnel Complex. DIVINE STRAKE would supply a relevant full scale simulation demonstration with a tunnel complex to create a post test underground environment sustaining light to severe damage.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/ops/divine-strake.htm

[helderheid]

3. Kick because we are ALL downwinders.

[helderheid]

4. Guys, this is HUGH!1!! I'm SERIES!!

[texpatriot2004]

5. I think NVMojo posted some related article on this. Shocking nt

[helderheid]

6. They've scheduled it and rescheduled it a few times - I hope we can block it

[texpatriot2004]

8. I am in NM so I was glad to hear that it wouldn't be here but I don't

want it there either.

Damn warmongering military industrial greedy bastards.

[seabeyond]

7. bummer. we can pick up their winds. bummer. n/t

[KamaAina]

9. Why not Crawford?

That'd sure clear out some brush!

:nuke:

[helderheid]

10. heheheh