SALT LAKE CITY -- A small but vocal crowd of people gathered Wednesday night for an open house on federal plans for a weapons test that U.S. officials say will generate the first mushroom-shaped dust cloud in decades at the Nevada Test Site.

The event was billed as a "public information session" where those interested could view 12 poster board displays of information about the proposed "Divine Strake" weapons test. Each display was manned by an official for the National Nuclear Security Administration or the Defense Threat Reduction Agency.

"They have not been able to tell me what the displacement will be," said Claudia Crosland, a Salt Lake City resident who attended the session.

Crosland said she would ask a question at one display and they would send her to talk with an official at another.

"It's like pingpong ball. I'm frustrated," she said.

Small groups gathered around the displays spaced out in a meeting room of the Grand America Hotel, asking questions ranging from how high the blast cloud could rise to where the odd name of the test comes from.

Others gathered in the center of the room and discussed the plan among themselves. The din of conversation was enough that when Darwin Morgan, spokesman for the NNSA gave information about the set up of the meeting by microphone he could hardly be heard.

Trent Alvey and Jean Arnold met at the meeting and said both of their fathers died of cancer due to exposure to radiation tests in the 1950s. Both of the women said they share a host of adrenal and autoimmune disorders that they blame on that exposure.

"I'm concerned on all levels. From my personal health all the way up to the U.S. is becoming the world's bully," Alvey said.

Arnold said she felt like the issue had already been decided.

"This is not a public input process that's going on tonight," Arnold said.

When a man shouted for all opposed to the project to say "aye," nearly all in the room responded "aye."

Kevin Donahue was quickly approached by men in plain clothes who identified themselves as officers with the Salt Lake City Police Department. Donahue was escorted out of the hotel but was not arrested.

"I just want the voices of Utah to be heard," Donahue said.

The public was encouraged to offer comments at the meeting by filling out a comment sheet, sending their comments in by e-mail or giving them to a stenographer set up at the back of the room. Wednesday's was the second of the open houses for the proposed weapons test. A similar session was held Tuesday in Las Vegas another is planned today in St. George, Utah.

The Divine Strake test would explode 700 tons of a fuel oil and fertilizer mixture over a tunnel at the Nevada Test Site, about 85 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

Officials say the blast will provide crucial data on the kind of shock needed to destroy deeply buried or hardened targets.