A revised environmental assessment was released on Friday, Norman noted. As of Tuesday, the government intended to issue a revised decision document on the planned test. Because of that, the test has been delayed.

"The proposed detonation of Divine Strake will take place no earlier than June 23, 2006," Norman wrote.

Erickson said several factors influenced the government to delay Divine Strake by three weeks: the lawsuit, opposition from the Utah and Nevada congressional delegation and Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., and the fact that Nevada air quality officials have not yet approved a permit for the test.

"I think they still have every intention of conducting this test if they can," he said. It's questionable whether the government can convince people the explosion would be safe.

Hager said on the basis of documents so far released, "no scientist could claim . . . this blast would be safe."

Rickards said published research shows plutonium 238 is "275 times more radioactive than weapons grade plutonium."

The isotope is present at the Nevada Test Site, located 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas, as are other radioactive particles left over from nuclear weapons testing. If anyone were to inhale a particle of P-238, that would be dangerous, he said.

The federal government's assertion that Divine Strake would re-suspend no radiation and expose no member of the public is "provably a lie," he charged. Radioactive particles deposited after earlier tests would have worked their way into the soil, he said.

"Obviously the Nevada Test Site has uncountable hidden deadly nucleotides buried slightly under the surface," Rickards said. Divine Strake would be detonated 30 feet underground "and lift all the dirt above it."

J Truman, a Malad, Idaho, man who grew up in southern Utah and directs the fallout victim advocacy group Downwinders, said the government is promising to hold town-hall type meetings in Nevada and southern Utah to discuss the test.

"That's a start," Truman added in an e-mail note, "but there should be official public hearings and a comment period so the public can have its say."

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