The scuttlebutt inside the Washington beltway is that nuclear bomb testing may resume in the Nevada desert as early as 2007 or 2008.

We would like to weigh in early, and hard, on the issue.

Do not test nuclear bombs in Nevada.

Do not sow another row of dragon's teeth in the Interior West.

Do not allow nuclear testing to raise havoc with the health of Utah's nuclear families.

The dark cloud of controversy and death from the testing in the 1960s still hangs over the state. The fallout from the tests was only equaled by the public health and political fallout that came later. Lawsuits were filed by those affected, and the courts agreed that the tests caused cancer and other illnesses. The government fought its citizens every step of the way.

Now is the time to prevent a battle no one has the stomach to fight.

The concern is that President Bush, as a lame-duck president, would feel no political pressure should he decide to set off bombs upwind from Utah. Utah's senators and representatives must make sure that fallacy is put to rest. The administration must realize that the political price would not be worth the potential strategic advantage.

According to Steve Erickson of the Citizens Education Project, the current administration has already requested funding not only for testing but for the development of an earth-penetrating nuclear bomb. By opposing the comprehensive test ban treaty, the Bush White House seems to have positioned itself to resume testing.

And though Linton F. Brooks of the National Nuclear Security Administration says no tests are planned for the "foreseeable future," circumstantial evidence and reports from the Arms Control Association indicate otherwise.

The 9/11 disaster has been used as a reason for many changes in the nation in the past few years. Some measures have been positive and constructive. Setting off nuclear bombs in Nevada would not be one. After the nuclear-testing debacle of the 1950s and 1960s, government promises of safety will not be taken with a grain of salt, even for underground testing. Historical film footage of nuclear mushroom clouds rising in the sky within shouting distance of Las Vegas still haunt those who trusted the government press releases at the time.

Testing at the Nevada Test Site burned Utahns once.

They will not be burned again.

The administration's thinkers needs to think more about the downside of nuclear testing in Nevada.