AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE,
WASHINGTON: The planned detonation of a 700-tonne explosive charge in the Nevada desert has been postponed because of legal proceedings, a Pentagon agency said Tuesday.
Dubbed “Divine Strake,” the “experiment” has drawn angry protests from Nevada residents worried about the possible environmental impact of the huge explosion, which would potentially send up a mushroom-like cloud 10,000 feet (3,048 meters) in the air.
“The experiment, originally scheduled for June 2, 2006, will not be conducted earlier than June 23, 2006,” the Defense Threat Reduction Agency said in a statement.
It said the National Nuclear Security Administration, which runs the test site in Nevada, has “decided to postpone the experiment due to the scheduling of legal proceedings,” the agency said.
DTRA officials have said Divine Strake is part of a US effort to develop weapons capable of destroying deeply buried bunkers housing nuclear, chemical or biological weapons.
It involves detonating 700 tonnes of conventional explosives over a tunnel to gather data on its effect on hard granite structures.
The commercial ammonium nitrate-fuel oil (ANFO) explosives that would be detonated are the equivalent of 593 tonnes of TNT.
