[3] In August 2006, a spokesperson for the Defense Threat Reduction Agency told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that a limestone quarry near Bedford, Indiana was under consideration as a possible alternative location for the test.
According to a draft environmental impact assessment filed by the National Nuclear Security Administration in May 2006, the charge would have been placed at 37°01′25″N 116°11′02″W / 37.02361°N 116.18377°W / 37.02361; -116.18377 in a circular pit some 32 feet in diameter with a hemispherical bottom.
Some media reports have stated that the purpose of Divine Strake was to test the ability of a conventional explosive to penetrate underground military compounds.
However, other reports suggested that this explanation was not credible given the weight, dimensions and emplacement of the charge and that the program was designed to test the effects of a nuclear bunker buster on deeply buried tunnel structures.
A leading environmental consultant, Richard L. Miller, believes that six tests conducted in the 1950s may have spread contamination over the area where the Pentagon planned to detonate the explosives.