Mushroom cloud blast in Nevada will be delayed

LAS VEGAS (AP) - A non-nuclear explosion expected to generate a ten-thousand-foot mushroom cloud over the Nevada desert will be postponed while a federal court reviews plans for the blast. It was originally scheduled for June second.

A lawsuit seeking to block the explosion accuses the government of skipping public comment and failing to complete required environmental studies before picking a date and place. It claims the planned 700-ton ammonium nitrate and fuel oil bomb will kick up radioactive fallout left from decades of nuclear weapons tests at the Nevada Test Site. And it contends that the blast will harm land that a Native American tribe has never acknowledged turning over to the U-S.

The Pentagon says the explosion will help design a weapon to penetrate hardened and deeply buried targets. Critics call it a surrogate for a low-yield nuclear "bunker-buster" bomb.

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