Eric Westrom/KTVB Photographer

Today's meeting gave Idahoans the chance to talk with the group that conducted environmental assessments of the former nuclear testing site and those proposing the experiment.

BOISE -- It's called Divine Strake. The Pentagon says the experiment is designed to gather data on destroying underground tunnels or bunkers without causing nuclear-type damage to surrounding areas.

The Department of Defense held an informational meeting in Boise Sunday for people to talk about this proposed test it calls safe.

The meeting gave Idahoans the chance to talk with the group that conducted environmental assessments of the former nuclear testing site and those proposing the experiment.

Some people at the meeting didn't find the answers they were looking for.

An area 85 miles from Las Vegas in the Nevada desert once used for nuclear testing is again the center of controversy over a proposed experiment called Divine Strake.

The Defense Threat Reduction Agency says the experiment would help U.S. Forces better track foreign underground facilities.

The test has been postponed twice because of public and political outcry.

Some people are concerned the explosion, though not nuclear in make up, would kick up soil many claim still holds nuclear remnants from testing some 50 years ago.

“We don't want it to happen,” said Suzanne Martin, downwinder.

Suzanne Martin and Carrie Jones were happy to fill out these comment forms and hope their thoughts are heard.

They call themselves downwinders, a group of people who claim the nuclear tests in the 1950s gave many people in their families cancer and other diseases, and they are worried the proposed experiment will produce another generation of downwinders.

“They are going to be such minor size that we are going to breath them in and once that particulate is in your lung, it's there and you are going to get cancer and you are going to die,” said Martin.

Senator Larry Craig is on the fence about the issue. He says he still has many questions he wants answered.

“We've lost a lot of Idahoans to cancer that I believe is from exposure to those explosions in the 50s, knowing that, then you don't take lightly a new test,” said Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho.

The National Nuclear Security Administration says soil samples have been tested in the area and a computer model was used to calculate the level of radiation that would be released into the air from Divine Strake.

“Our models say that if you were standing at the border of the test site when this experiment went off and if you were to stay there for a year, you would receive .005 millirems of radiation. We did some comparisons, a smoke detector in your house, you would receive more of a radioactive dose from your smoke detector than you would standing at the border of the test site,” said Kevin Rohrer, National Nuclear Security Administration.

NNSA is looking for comments from the public to determine if a new revised environmental assessment is needed.

Sen. Craig says if Divine Strake does take place it will be a long way down the road.

“This is not a slam dunk. It's not something that’s going to happen tomorrow or the next day. Will it happen? I don't know, but if it does happen we want to make sure that Idaho isn't going to be a victim like they were in the 1950s,” said Craig.

To submit a comment about Divine Strake or for more information on it, go to: www.nv.doe.gov.

Comments need to be submitted by February 7th.