Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

The Defense Department is hoping Utahns have short memories and will swallow another line about "harmless" bomb tests.

The government plans to set off 700 tons of ammonium nitrate and fuel oil in Nevada to determine if a ground-penetrating bomb can deliver enough force to destroy underground bunkers and weapons caches.

The test, Divine Strake, is to be conducted at the Nevada Test Site. The prospect of a bomb 350 times the size of the one that blew apart the Alfred P. Murrah building in Oklahoma City is disturbing to Utahns. While it is not nuclear, it is being detonated on ground where past nuclear weapons tests have irradiated the soil.

One of the things researchers are looking at is how far this nitrate/oil bomb will throw material from the blast site. Utahns fear that the dust cloud the bomb will raise will carry radioactive material into Utah, repeating a dark and deadly chapter of Utah's history.

Utah's congressional delegation has raised concerns about the possible spread of radiation, and downwinders have filed suit to block the test. That has resulted in a temporary reprieve for southern Utah. Instead of detonating the bomb on June 2, the government has rescheduled the test for no earlier than June 23.

The agencies conducting the test, the Defense Threat Reduction Agency and the National Nuclear Security Administration, both claim that there will be "no significant impact" to Utah and Nevada residents from the blast.

Pardon us for being skeptical. We've heard that tune before.

In the 1950s, government officials assured residents of southern Utah that the bomb tests in Nevada were perfectly safe, and that the fallout drifting over Utah was harmless. Sadly, Utahns bought that baloney. In southern Utah, it became a game for people to run out after bomb tests with Geiger counters looking for the hottest spot of fallout.

The government lied, as we learned later, and the fallout was deadly. Many Utahns died of radiation-related cancers, while others required treatment for radiation-related illnesses. The government has offered compensation to the downwinders, but it is not really enough to make up for that pain and suffering.

Experience has made Utahns wary of nuclear testing in Nevada, and especially skeptical when government officials pronounce anything related to radiation or weapons to be harmless.

Just because this bomb does not use plutonium or enriched uranium does not make it any safer when it is being detonated on radioactive soil -- soil so dangerous that Nevada Test Site workers warn visitors not to take home any rocks as souvenirs.

Make no mistake, this bomb will be huge. There is no way to predict how far radiation-laden dust will carry from the test, and no way to know whethre the levels of radiation in the fallout will harm people downwind. There are too many variables to say with certainty that Utah will be safe. The right combination of bomb force and wind could put Utahns in the path of a new radioactive dust cloud.

For the agencies involved in the test to say there will be no significant effect is akin to allowing the owner of a seedy restaurant to certify that his kitchen passes the health code.

We understand the need to develop a weapon that can strike underground targets, but testing it at the Nevada Test Site seems risky. Why not do the test somewhere else in the vast Western desert? Surely there are other places that pose no radioactive risk, such as at Dugway or the Utah Test and Training Range.

Moving the test to a safer location would help the government rebuild its bomb-wracked credibility with Utahns.