Letter: Idea of testing a bomb in Nevada is disturbing

Wednesday, Nov. 22, 2006 | 7:12 a.m.

I am responding to your Nov. 19 story about how plans are back on the table for the explosion of a 700-ton bomb at the Nevada Test Site. I am very disturbed at this planned bombing of Nevada (after all, that is what it is).

Are we crazy? This bomb has the magnitude of a 3.0 earthquake. I wonder if James Tegnelia, the director of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, the federal agency in charge of testing the bomb, is going to be present in our state for any length of time to see for himself the effects of this bomb. Will his children live here and feel what happens to our children in the next few years when they are breathing the dust from this explosion?

My suggestion to the Defense Threat Reduction Agency is to test this bomb in Iraq, or better yet, Afghanistan. After all, that is where our enemies are hiding and killing our boys. And if it doesn't want to go all that way, then the agency should test the bomb in Texas, near President Bush's house, not ours.

Harriet Stein, Las Vegas