Hatch joins group opposing test blast

Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, is joining the chorus of concern about a planned gigantic explosion of non-nuclear material at the Nevada Test Site.

The blow-up, code-named "Divine Strake," is planned for June 2. It would use 700 tons of conventional explosives.

Earlier, Rep. Scott Matheson, D-Utah, wrote to the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, sponsor of the test, saying the explosion worries him because it seems like a step toward developing a low-yield nuclear weapon.

The amount of explosives to be used, 700 tons, could not simulate an actual conventional bomb because no American bomber can carry a weapon that large, Matheson wrote.

On Monday, Hatch said he would send his top military and nuclear policy aides to Nevada on Wednesday for a briefing about the detonation.

"The more I look into this, the more upset I become," Hatch said in a press release. "The good people who live downwind from this test site have already been through enough, and I've given my word that I'll never allow any nuclear testing that could harm them again."

Hatch said he has told his staff to check into the matter carefully.

"If I'm not satisfied that this will be safe," he said in the release, "I'm going to do everything I can to put a stop to it."

He expressed concern that the gigantic blast could be 1.5 miles from the area where six underground nuclear weapons tests were carried out. Divine Strake would send a mushroom cloud up to 10,000 feet in altitude, he said.

"We need good, clear answers explaining how a test of that magnitude will be able to contain the spread of radioactive particles from the previous tests," he said.

Hatch included a copy of the letter he sent Friday to James Tegnelia, director of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency.

Hatch told Tegnelia he understands that Divine Strake's detonation of conventional explosives is designed to assist in developing non-nuclear methods and technologies that hold the promise of neutralizing hardened underground facilities.