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US to test 700-tonne explosive(will send mushroom cloud over Las Vegas)
Breitbart.com ^

Posted on 03/30/2006 8:54:13 AM PST by MARKUSPRIME

The US military plans to detonate a 700 tonne explosive charge in a test called "Divine Strake" that will send a mushroom cloud over Las Vegas, a senior defense official said.

"I don't want to sound glib here but it is the first time in Nevada that you'll see a mushroom cloud over Las Vegas since we stopped testing nuclear weapons," said James Tegnelia, head of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency.

Tegnelia said the test was part of a US effort to develop weapons capable of destroying deeply buried bunkers housing nuclear, chemical or biological weapons.

"We have several very large penetrators we're developing," he told defense reporters.


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
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To: All

Lots of information in this 115 page draft assessment.

Large-Scale, Open-Air Explosive Detonation, DIVINE STRAKE, at the Nevada Test Site.
http://budget.state.nv.us/clearinghouse/Notice/2006/E2006-222.pdf


61 posted on 03/30/2006 9:14:14 AM PST by thackney (life is fragile, handle with prayer)
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To: CROSSHIGHWAYMAN

Iran came to mind immediately!


62 posted on 03/30/2006 9:14:47 AM PST by MEG33 ( GOD BLESS OUR ARMED FORCES)
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Comment #63 Removed by Moderator

To: Lekker 1

make that 0.7 kiloton


64 posted on 03/30/2006 9:15:18 AM PST by thackney (life is fragile, handle with prayer)
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To: traderrob6
How does this one compare to the :Daisy Cutter"?

Daisy Cutter (BLU-82) is 15,000lbs, or 7.5 tons. Divine Strake is 770 tons ... over 100x larger. Or, daisy cutter is 1% as large as Divine Strake.
65 posted on 03/30/2006 9:15:36 AM PST by tanknetter
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To: MARKUSPRIME
Thats gonna be one huge conventional explosive.

Actually they plan to use all the antimatter we have on earth (0.000000001 gram) to make 4-9 bombs at 2kt each :-)

If we could create just 1 gram of antimatter per year that would still be a big bang!!

66 posted on 03/30/2006 9:16:02 AM PST by prophetic
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To: thackney

Yup...I was thinking in Megatons.


67 posted on 03/30/2006 9:18:19 AM PST by Lekker 1 ("Computers in the future may have only 1000 vacuum tubes..." - Popular Mechanics, March 1949)
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To: prophetic

"If we could create just 1 gram of antimatter per year that would still be a big bang!!"

Such wampum would also make spaceship go big fast, which would be my choice for such a commodity.


68 posted on 03/30/2006 9:19:31 AM PST by MeanWestTexan (Many at FR would respond to Christ "Darn right, I'll cast the first stone!")
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To: Vaquero

LOL


69 posted on 03/30/2006 9:20:22 AM PST by MARKUSPRIME
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To: thackney

Reading into that, it is a test of the blast effect and fallout from a sub-kiloton, deep penetration nuclear bunker buster.


70 posted on 03/30/2006 9:20:44 AM PST by MediaMole
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To: Ramius

The nuclear equivalent of a 700 ton conventional explosion would be fairly light. A B-2 could carry several I think.


71 posted on 03/30/2006 9:21:22 AM PST by Former Proud Canadian
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To: MARKUSPRIME

Test it in I-ran.


72 posted on 03/30/2006 9:22:28 AM PST by citizen (Yo W! Read my lips: No Amnistia by any name! And the White House has a fence around it!)
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To: Centurion2000

The Theodore Roosevelt strategy.


73 posted on 03/30/2006 9:24:01 AM PST by Busywhiskers (Democrats est delinda.)
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To: reagan_fanatic

Nash in '08!


74 posted on 03/30/2006 9:24:57 AM PST by madconservative
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To: Ramius
Uh... how do you deliver 700 tons? Strikes me as rather a lot to carry?


Yes it is a lot. But, damn it all, if Michael Moore's mom can carry and deliver 700 tons then by God so can our military!
75 posted on 03/30/2006 9:25:04 AM PST by macamadamia
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To: thackney

ANFO is just a fuel oil and ammonium nitrate mix. I guarantee this is just a surrogate for a nuke weapons test.


76 posted on 03/30/2006 9:26:43 AM PST by FastCoyote
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To: macamadamia
Yes it is a lot. But, damn it all, if Michael Moore's mom can carry and deliver 700 tons then by God so can our military!

LOL!!! . . . snort . . . LOL!!!

77 posted on 03/30/2006 9:27:59 AM PST by Sergio (If a tree fell on a mime in the forest, would he make a sound?)
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To: Izzy Dunne

That statement freaked me out - you couldn't really see mushroom clouds from Vegas when they were testing nukes in the past could you?


78 posted on 03/30/2006 9:33:21 AM PST by Conservomax (There are no solutions, only trade-offs.)
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To: MARKUSPRIME

Suppose you were working on a small nuke with about a 0.7 to 1 kiloton yield but you couldn't do a field test to see what the physical effects would be on an installation carved into a subterranean granite structure. I find the idea of a conventional weapon amounting to 140,000 pounds of TNT hard to picture in the belly of a B2.


79 posted on 03/30/2006 9:33:34 AM PST by katana
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To: MARKUSPRIME

One enough fot Tehran ?
Vote YES: Lake Iran


80 posted on 03/30/2006 9:33:40 AM PST by IrishMike (Dry Powder is a plus)
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