About the lawsuit:

The lawsuit - filed in a federal court by the Winnemuca Indian Colony (Western Shoshone tribe) and several downwinders from Nevada and Utah - reiterates, and elaborates on, a claim made by the director of the Pentagon agency sponsoring the test, James Tegnelia, that the Divine Strake test would create a 'mushroom cloud' that will rise to 10,000 feet.  The concerns of the Western Shoshone and downwinders are that the 10,000 foot high dust cloud would contain radioactive particles ejected from the soils at the blast site.  Environmental experts have pointed out that several 1950's nuclear tests conducted within eight miles from the proposed ground-zero of Divine Strake probably deposited radioactive particles that are still present in the soil.  The Pentagon has not provided evidence to confirm or deny this claim. 

The lawsuit alleges that Divine Strake, therefore, would irreversibly harm tribal lands, endanger the health of the tribe and downwinders, and furthermore violate the Treaty of Ruby Valley that the U.S. government signed with the Western Shoshone Nation during the 19th century.   (The treaty gives the Western Shoshone Nation rightful ownership of the land that is now the Nevada Test Site.) 

Further, the lawsuit claims that the Defendants (Donald Rumsfeld, DoD; Linton Brooks, NNSA; and James Tegnelia, DTRA) have 'acted in an arbitrary and capricious manner' in their failure to provide proper notice of the test (publish its plans in the Federal Register), provide the required opportunity for public comment, and properly assess the environmental effect of the test by completing a full Environmental Impact Statement.   

DTRA: Defense Threat Reduction Agency (an agency within the Pentagon)

NNSA: National Nuclear Security Administration (an agency within the Department of Energy that oversees the Nevada Test Site)