[Kerrz]

It was less of an immediate safety concern and more a case of trying to limit the variables. They were only doing tests under ideal conditions, rather than testing in all conditions. I imagine the plan involves testing in all conditions eventually, but they need to fine-tune their equipment in ideal conditions to make sure they know what "good" and "bad" look like before potentially feeding some atmospheric action that they didn't anticipate.

[m_mueller]

How about doing it somewhere remote? Say, on a remote pacific island with no inhabitants? Or is there even the fear that it could emit a hurricane (which would probably happen anyways, but if it's your machine that starts it, all (media) hell breaks loose)?