On December 18, 1970, the Baneberry underground nuclear test at the Nevada Test Site released radioactivity to the atmosphere. Levels of radioactivity measured off the Test Site were below radiation guidelines and posed no hazard to the public.
U.S. Department of Energy
One needs only glance at a few headlines to discover that the dominant political idea in Utah these days is fight the federal government. Keep them from harming Utahns.
This lens is usually applied to issues such as federal lands or health-care policy. I would like to see it applied to a different issue: whether the U.S. should permanently end nuclear weapons testing.
Anyone who has lived in Utah for very long knows that sad legacy of the thousands of our state's residents who grew sick and died because the federal government cared so little about Utahns they repeatedly exploded nuclear weapons just west of here.
Thanks to a recent op-ed ("No need for nuclear weapons testing," My View, April 11), now we know that the nation's best scientists agree we no longer need nuclear weapons testing to keep America safe. It's great news. Let's ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and make sure that future generations of Utahns too aren't sickened by the federal government.
Elliott S. Hansen
Salt Lake City
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I hate to tell you this, but the US has essentially stopped testing of nuclear warheads. We can now run very accurate simulations on the computer.
The test ban treaty would mean nothing because the nations that are developing nuclear More..
Keep nuclear testing. I don't say this lightly. Testing is vital in keeping our nuclear arsenal up to date, and the deterrent effect of our nuclear weapons is vital to stabilizing a peaceful world. With what we've learned in recent More..
Many commenter's and opinion writers on this subject (Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty) keep focusing on the wrong target for their rationale, namely open-air or underground explosive testing of nuclear weapons. They pontificate this is reason why More..