Steve Gifford of Reno protests Saturday in front of the Governor's Mansion in Carson City. More than two dozen activists protested a planned non-nuclear blast at the Nevada Test Site. Photo by Brad Horn/The Associated Press.
RENO -- A group of Nevada activists is pressing Gov. Jim Gibbons to request an environmental impact statement and public hearings on the federal government's plans for a 700-ton explosion in the Nevada desert.
More than two dozen activists marched a mile Saturday in Carson City from the Legislative Building to the Governor's Mansion, where they held a news conference to express concerns over the planned non-nuclear blast at the Nevada Test Site.
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The event was sponsored by No New Mushroom Clouds Over Nevada, Or Anywhere!, a coalition of such groups as the Reno Anti-War Coalition, the Sierra Interfaith Action for Peace and the Western Shoshone Defense Project.
"We don't think it's right that our new governor has been silent on the issue," said Lee Dazey, an event organizer. "We sent a letter to him January 22, and we haven't heard anything from him.
"We think he has a responsibility to clarify what his stance is, given what his predecessor requested," Dazey added.
Before leaving office last month, former Gov. Kenny Guinn asked for a supplemental EIS that would require public hearings on the test. Both Gibbons and Guinn are Republicans.
Gibbons' communications director, Brent Boynton, did not return phone calls seeking comment Saturday.
The "Divine Strake" explosion, first scheduled for June 2006, was postponed indefinitely after Western Shoshone tribe members filed a lawsuit.
Critics fear radioactive material from decades of Cold War-era weapons tests will be loosened by the blast and scattered across Nevada and southern Utah. They call it a step toward developing "bunker buster" nuclear weapons.
Activists said they're puzzled that members of Nevada's congressional delegation have recently been silent on the issue, while top elected officials in Utah and Idaho have pressed for public hearings.
Since releasing a revised environmental assessment on the explosion in December, the government has held public "open houses" in Las Vegas, Salt Lake City and Saint George, Utah.
The EA claims that the level of radiation released would be below federal safety standards, and the blast presents no public health hazards.
No date has been set for detonation of the 700-ton ammonium nitrate and fuel oil bomb, which would generate the first mushroom-shaped dust cloud in decades at the test site, 85 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
