Titanic Post

BUSH REGIME AGREES NOT TO BLOW UP NEVADA DESERT

SALT LIKE TRIBUNE - Divine Strake was promised to blow a hole in the earth and create a mushroom cloud over the Nevada desert. Instead, it blew open old wounds for Utahns who had been promised Cold War atomic tests would be safe, and the hurt, betrayal and rage that poured out left the Pentagon with little choice but to announce it was scrappingt the test. Michelle Thomas spent the day in tears. “I’ve cried all day long. I just can’t yet grasp it,” said Thomas, a St. George Downwinder who opposed Divine Strake. She has had cancer and suffers an immune deficiency she blames on exposure to radiation. “I just felt such an overwhelming relief,” she said. “You just think, ‘Oh my gosh. We matter.’ ” The memories of Utahns helped fuel an unprecedented flood of resistance to the test, the ignition of 700 tons of explosives planned for the Nevada Test Site from which radiation spread from atomic tests into Utah and other states downwind. “This wasn’t run-of-the-mill public opposition. This was a heartfelt and broad-based public expression, so much so that it would have been impossible for anyone to neglect,” said Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. “I can’t remember the last time we had an issue that had this kind of unified public response. . . . Memories are very much alive and well.”