Boise, ID -
If the U.S. Government plans to reschedule a controversial explosion at a remote government test site, it won't happen before September.
That is what a lawyer for the U.S. Department of Justice told a federal judge in Las Vegas about the proposed test blast of 700 tons of explosives at the Nevada Test Site.
The government wants to conduct the test to improve the weapons in the U.S. arsenal aimed at destroying hardened underground targets. The test blast, called "Divine Strake" has generated protests from Native American Indian Tribes, anti-nuclear groups, as well as "down-winders." They have all expressed concerns that detonation of that much explosive material could throw radioactive debris, left over the 1950's atomic bomb tests, into the atmosphere.
The government is concerned summer lightning could accidentally cause the material to explode prematurely.
A new date for the test blast has not been set.
