DIVINE STRAKE: Experts defend blast: They insist explosion not aimed at

[NVMojo]

They insist explosion not aimed at developing new nuclear weapon

May 15, 2006

There's a reason defense scientists and government nuclear experts continue to insist that the massive Divine Strake explosion planned for next month at the Nevada Test Site is not aimed at developing a new nuclear bunker-buster bomb.

Using a nuclear earth-penetrator bomb in an attempt to destroy a deep tunnel holding weapons of mass destruction could kill or seriously injure 1 million people or more from fallout, radiation and the blast itself, according to a National Academy of Sciences report by a panel of experts that included local health physicist Lynn Anspaugh, a leading expert on fallout dose calculations.

And that would defeat the purpose of what such a bomb is intended to accomplish.

"There's going to be massive fallout. It's going to be catastrophic," Anspaugh said in a recent interview at his Henderson home.

more...

http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2006/May-15-Mon-2006/news/7387771.html

[sutz12]

1. What the hell else could it be aimed at....

Call me naive, but I don't think the Iranians will sit calmly by while we truck in 800 tons of explosives and place them carefully over their most sensitive bunkers and bomb shelters. Nobody has a plane with that payload.

How fucking stupid do they think we are?

[NVMojo]

2. ...and with Yucca Mtn close by, they are sure to further fracture

the underground causing cracks and leaks into the water table in the region. Fools. Short-sighted fools.

[Jacobin]

3. What it means is this:

Since that amount of weight in a bomb can't be dropped from a plane, it means that they are testing the amount of explosive power it would take to destroy underground facilities using CONVENTIONAL explosives.

Then, they would know whether a nuclear device with the same explosive power (which of course could be dropped from a plane) could do the deed.

[mom cat]

14. That is the most likely reason.

[daleo]

8. Perhaps 1600 cruise missiles, each with 1000 pound bombs

All converging at exactly the same time and place...:nuke:

After all, Bush and company think people will believe anything.

[Solo_in_MD]

12. You are not naive, but ill informed

Lots of prior traffic on this that is worthy of review, but consider this:

1) Conventional explosions like this do not aid in the development of nuclear weapons, which is to say the design, manufacture of components for nuclear weapons. Not one bit.

2) This test is designed to gage the effect of surface explosions on subterranean structures. Some will be at ground zero, others further away in terms of distance and depth.

3) Another purpose is to collect enough data to validate/tune the models that used to predict such such effects. Test like this one is very expensive, the computer runs very cheap by comparison.

4) Explosive yield will be closer to about 500 tons (they are using ANFO vice the good stuff)

5) I is very possible that the answer that is arrived at is that only nuclear bombs can generated the damage needed. Then again, they may find that certain structures can be damaged sufficiently with much lower amounts of explosives.


Clearly this is not to simulate a single air dropped weapon, but its also not a nuclear test as some people have mistakenly claimed. Its a classic (though very large scale) experiment on blast effects. I do find the choice of names more than a little ironic

[SpiralHawk]

4. BushCo experts agree: "Everything is hunky dory."

So shut up, sit down, consume your choco-rations, and watch the latest propaganda dispatches on Faux News.

[Supersedeas]

13. yay, more alligator attacks

[jpak]

5. Do they think we're stupid????

This is nothing more than a mini-nuke simulation test - it can't be anythimg else.

[sutz12]

6. Yes, they do.

[Jacobin]

11. Yep. Its a simulation for using nukes.

[grateful581]

7. this needs to be stopped!

I think the government said that "There is no danger" back in 1957 too.
I don't trust the governments word and neither do the DOWNWINDERS.

[VegasWolf]

9. Harry Reid has already dropped his trowsers, bent over, and grabbed his

ankles! He says the gov has assured him there would be no fallout from the bomb.

[nicknameless]

27. The only reasonable response to that would be:

"So, Senator Reid, what dirt did the NSA dig up on you and threaten to make public, in order to get you to say that?"

And "fallout" isn't the issue. It's the contaminated dust, from previous explosions, that will be spread by this insane test.

[Trajan]

10. WTF is up with the 'Divine' symbology ? ....

HOW the FUCK is a bomb 'Divine' ? .....

Beyond whether such weapons are justifiable to build OR use: WHO the fuck are they talking to when they use these names ?

[Jacobin]

15. Its a holy war

[VegasWolf]

16. The "divine" aspect refers to bush himself. nt

[daleo]

17. The "strake" part is even more interesting

One obscure meaning is a screed, like what is used to level cement or concrete after pouring a pad. So, this can be thought of as "God-like concrete leveler" - i.e. a nice metaphor for a nuke.

[enlightenment]

18. Every government agency gets a two letter designation.

The DOE's designation is "DI."

Every project, test, etc. gets a two-word designation -- the first word starts with "DI" and the second is randomly chosen.

They didn't have to pick "divine," they could have picked any other word starting with "DI" -- but they did.

The second word is random; this series of tests has a number of different words, which of course I can't remember right now -- except one: hell.

So, one of these tests is/was "Divine Hell."

sigh.

[originalpckelly]

19. I did a long analysis of this, but here are the short conclusions:

1. The USA does not have a plane that can carry such a large bomb if conventional. The bomb would be 3-5 (depending on the explosive used) times the payload capacity of the C-5 Galaxy. Simply put, no one would build a bomb so large because it is undeliverable.

2. The DOD then claimed the test explosion (Divine Strake) would simulate the damage done by many smaller bombs. Anyone with only the most rudimentary understanding of physics knows there is a big difference between the blast waves from one 500-ton bomb and 500 one-ton bombs. The blast wave from the larger weapon will propagate further into the ground. The bomb blasts from the many smaller bombs will propagate only as far as one small bombs blast wave would. So simply put, one big explosion can never simulate the damage done to underground facilities by many small bombs.

3. The only type of weapon in the USA arsenal capable of the blast range given is a small nuclear bunker buster bomb, which has a variable yield, a bomb from the B-61 series. It is highly likely that the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator(RNEP) project the Bush administration pushed right after the major combat in Afghanistan, which magically disappeared from the defense research budget, is a B-61-11 with a B-61-11 warhead modified to fit in the B-61-11. This warhead is capable of a yield within the predicted .5 kt of TNT.

Final Conclusion:
When put in the context of Sy Hersch's report of the Bush administration refusing to take the nuclear option off the table in any possible conflict with Iran; it is highly likely this Divine Strake test is meant to show what kind of damage would be done by an RNEP, and may be the final step before the actual use of such a weapon. The use of the weapon could cause more fallout than a much larger yield device because it would irradiate a lot of soil and project that soil into the atmosphere like the exhaust of a rocket engine.

http://www.nukestrat.com/index.htm
and
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B-61

[NVMojo]

23. excellent info, thanks for posting!

[anotherdrew]

20. couldn't we just use a tunnel boring machine to get in?

I mean, so what if your enemy is burried in a bunker? they can't do anything down there but wait for the tunnel boring machine to arive. why the rush to use a bomb to do something a bomb CAN'T do?

[jayctravis]

21. They want to fight them up there

so they don't have to fight them down there.

[anotherdrew]

24. they'd just clear the bunker with robots first anyway

I think these bunkerbusters are just more pork for bushes base

[struggle4progress]

22. Here's a nice piece with some quotes from historical budget documents:

Divine Strake: Global Strike Low-Yield Nuclear Simulation
http://www.nukestrat.com/us/stratcom/gs-divinestrake.htm

Bottom line: Ignore the propaganda about conventional arms, cuz this sucker has ALWAYS been about developing a new generation of nuclear weapons ...

[anotherdrew]

25. so aparently they feel they can just blatantly LIE to our faces

the media sure can't be expeted to point out a link like that. that would require them to do their damned jobs.

[hunter]

26. Tunnels make me think of North Korea.

They say they have nukes, you know.

:tinfoilhat: :scared: