Dear Kossacks,
Thank you so much for your feedback and supportive remarks. We can achieve so much through effective, concerted action like we saw in Washington, DC one week ago.
The following are remarks I gave at a public hearing hosted by Utah Governor Jon Huntsman, Jr. on the so-called "Divine Strake" test. This planned detonation of 700 tons of ammonium nitrate and fuel oil on radioactively contaminated land at the Nevada Test Site has received little attention in the national press. The test, however, has the potential to spread radioactivity beyond the bounds of the test site, is being planned in violation of international law, and is widely regarded as the precursor to a renewed US nuclear program.
If you are as concerned about the Divine Strake test as I am, and as many Utah and Nevada residents are, please contact your elected officials and make your voices heard.
Best regards,
Rocky Anderson
Remarks of Ross C. "Rocky" Anderson,
Mayor, Salt Lake City, Utah
Public Hearing on the Proposed Divine Strake Test
Held by Governor Jon Huntsman, Jr. and the Utah Department of Environmental Quality
January 24, 2007
The history of Utah and the American West during the 20th century is, in significant part, dominated by the lies, stupidity, and wanton disregard for public health at the heart of the US nuclear program. As we consider the "Divine Strake" test tonight, we remember the thousands of Utahns in our state who have become casualties of dishonest, senseless, destructive federal nuclear policy. As they deliberate about this latest test, elected officials are obliged to listen to the voices of Utah’s downwinders.
The United States government, as it detonated nearly 930 nuclear devices at the Nevada Test Site (NTS)—one hundred of them above ground —told the people of Utah and the nation that we were safe. Today, the Centers for Disease Control estimates that American deaths from external exposure to fallout will reach 11,000, with 22,000 total cancer cases from external exposure and 49,000 thyroid cancer cases from internal exposure to iodine-131. Defense Department bureaucrats, Congressional representatives, and members of the Bush Administration may view Utah and Nevada as a "damn good place to dump used razor blades," as a military magazine once described this part of the West, but the people of Salt Lake City will not stand for that derogation of our region or for the view that Utahns and Nevadans should be the nation’s nuclear guinea pigs again. Unlike many in the Bush administration, we understand the incredible risks the Divine Strake, and similar weapons, pose. We will not allow another public health catastrophe, caused by the federal government, to devastate the lives of our good, hard-working citizens.
The proposed Divine Strake blast threatens the public health of citizens in Salt Lake City and the state of Utah. The blast may kick up toxic, radioactive material from hundreds of previous nuclear tests in a mushroom cloud at least 10,000 feet high that will spread throughout the western United States. According to the Department of Energy’s own environmental assessment report, the proposed area of the test "was subject to fallout from global and NTS nuclear tests," and "resuspension of this fallout could travel beyond the NTS boundary where it might contribute to the radiological dose of the public." This admission came only after the DOE absurdly claimed in its initial environmental assessment, released last May, that "radioactively contaminated soils are not present within the vicinity of the proposed Divine Strake detonation," and that the test "would not result in the suspension or dispersion of radioactive materials or human exposure to radioactive materials."
In addition to the radioactive particles left over from past nuclear testing, Divine Strake’s toxic mixture of ammonium nitrate and fuel oil emulsion, the same dangerous mixture Timothy McVeigh used in 1995 to destroy the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 innocent people, will blast more than two tons of cyanide compounds, over fifteen hundred pounds of phosgene (a World War I era chemical weapon), over sixteen hundred pounds of chlorine gas, and numerous other known carcinogens into the atmosphere, further threatening the health of our community. In addition to the negative effects the blast will have on human health, Divine Strake has the potential to severely impact many special status and threatened species that are already struggling to survive in the Nevada desert ecosystem, including the desert tortoise, the golden eagle, and the bald eagle, our nation’s symbol.
Allowing the Divine Strake explosion will open the door to renewed nuclear weapons testing, once again putting Utahns at risk for exposure to radioactive dust and other toxic fallout materials. According to the Defense Department’s 2006 budget request, the Divine Strake test is intended "to simulate a low yield nuclear weapon ground shock environment at Department of Energy's Nevada Test Site." Commencing a new nuclear program, at a time when the United States is condemning Iran and North Korea for their nuclear programs, would make our efforts to stem proliferation appear false and hypocritical, and would further endanger public health.
Lastly, the United Nations Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination condemned the United States in April 2006 for violating the rights of the Western Shoshone tribe by planning and conducting "destructive activities . . . on areas of spiritual and cultural significance to the Western Shoshone peoples." The Committee urged the United States to "desist from all activities planned and/or conducted on the ancestral lands of Western Shoshone or in relation to their natural resources, which are being carried out without consultation with and despite protests of the Western Shoshone peoples." The Divine Strake test is slated to take place on land guaranteed to the Western Shoshone tribe under the 1863 Treaty of Ruby Valley, and has been planned despite vigorous opposition from the Western Shoshone. Therefore, the federal administration is defying the international community in proceeding with the Divine Strake test. The United States government’s shameful treatment of the indigenous people of this country should not be perpetuated by destroying ancestral Shoshone land, in violation of the International Convention to End All Forms of Racial Discrimination.
We vigorously oppose all weapons testing that is projected to negatively impact the natural environment and the public health. We will not allow the federal government to put our lives and our future at risk, or to renege on its stated obligations to our nation’s indigenous people. If we are to effectively oppose global nuclear proliferation, and avoid another disastrous arms race, we cannot commence new nuclear programs. Together, we can stop Divine Strake, take responsibility for the health of our environment, and ensure the safety of our citizens for generations to come.