This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2007, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

WASHINGTON - Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch and Rep. Jim Matheson say they want the Pentagon to follow through on a promise to hold hearings where residents could question officials on the record about the safety of Divine Strake, a massive blast slated to take place in Nevada.

"We fully agree with the disappointment felt by many of our constituents" at the lack of on-the-record questioning at Divine Strake open houses held in Salt Lake City on Wednesday and St. George on Thursday, the pair said in a letter to the director of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, which is planning the test.

Hatch and Matheson said the Pentagon agency made a commitment to have a question-and-answer session, but didn't follow through.

They said those who attended the Salt Lake meeting also said the format was confusing and answers were sometimes contradictory.

"This only increases the much deserved distrust that many Utahns have toward statements made by the federal government regarding radiation and activities at the Nevada Test Site," Hatch and Matheson wrote in the letter.

Their earlier protests prompted the Defense Threat Reduction Agency to hold the public meetings.

The 700-ton blast is designed to develop computer models for new bunker buster weapons, but there is concern that the tests could spread radioactive material from Cold War era tests at the Nevada Test Site that sickened thousands of Utahns and lead to new nuclear weapons development.

-Robert Gehrke