Officials at federal agency say they will not proceed with Divine Strake

Despite a federal court ruling that disallowed downwinders from presenting evidence for continual judicial oversight of the Divine Strake bunker-buster bomb test, the agency that had wanted to conduct the experiment two years ago has decided not to proceed with it.

The Defense Threat Reduction Agency, which was prepared to detonate a 700-ton high-explosives slurry at the Nevada Test Site "has no plans to conduct the proposed Divine Strake experiment," an agency spokeswoman said Tuesday.

The spokeswoman, Cheri Abdelnour, also said agency officials would not comment on the Feb. 21 ruling in Las Vegas by Senior U.S. District Judge Lloyd George.

George struck down as moot a motion by the downwinders' attorney to enter evidence and expert testimony on the need for continuing judicial oversight of future attempts by the Pentagon agency to conduct the non-nuclear, Divine Strake bomb test.

Attorney Robert Hager of Reno, who filed the lawsuit on behalf of the downwinders and Western Shoshones from the Winnemucca Indian Colony, has been out of the country and not available for comment.

The lawsuit, with concerns voiced by some elected officials in Nevada and Utah, prompted a series of postponements of the detonation, originally scheduled for June 2, 2006.

The test was canceled Feb. 22, 2007, when James Tegnelia, director of the Pentagon's Defense Threat Reduction Agency, issued a one-page statement, saying, "I have become convinced that it's time to look at alternative methods that obviate the need for this type of large-scale test."

After the test was announced in 2006, Tegnelia apologized for saying the blast from a slurry of ammonium nitrate and fuel oil would send a "mushroom cloud over Las Vegas."