90 Arrested at Nuclear Site : Test Delayed but U.S. Denies Link to Protest

Ninety nuclear protesters were arrested here Tuesday for trespassing about the time a scheduled underground nuclear test was postponed, reportedly because of weather-related factors.

Officials in Washington refused to confirm that a test had been scheduled--much less that one had been postponed. But informed sources said the delay had nothing to do with the presence of about 300 protesters at the test site.

It was not known if a new test date has been set.

The test had been scheduled the same day that President Reagan met in Washington with departing Soviet Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin. White House spokesman Larry Speakes refused to discuss reasons for the postponement except to say it was unrelated to U.S.-Soviet relations or planning for a summit.

Also in Washington, opponents of the test urged the Administration to go along with a Soviet moratorium on testing and an offer by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to halt all testing if the United States does.

“The Soviets have said they want to stop testing and are willing to accept on-site inspection to verify a test ban treaty,” Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) said. “Why don’t we call their bluff?”

Separately, 25 Nobel Prize winners urged the President to suspend tests of U.S. nuclear weapons and resume test ban negotiations with Moscow.

The 90 arrests were made at the southern main entrance to the testing range, about 65 miles north of Las Vegas. That was the highest number of such arrests ever for one day here, said a spokeswoman for the American Peace Test, which organized the demonstration along with several other groups.

A few hours before those demonstrators were taken to jail, others were dodging helicopters and roving guard patrols in the cactus-studded plains and mountains deep inside the test range, which is about the size of Rhode Island.

Earlier in the day, five men and a woman in camouflage clothing set off in a four-wheel-drive truck under the cover of darkness in search of ground zero.

Accompanied by one-time Vietnam War protester Daniel Ellsberg, the group’s attempt to disrupt the test ended at 7:10 a.m.--just five miles short of their goal, they said--when they were cornered on a snow-capped peak by government helicopters and then confronted by armed security guards.

“They made themselves known to us in a rather shocking way,” demonstrator Maggie Murphy, 29, of Dublin, Ireland, said later.

Separately, another group of six Greenpeace members spent more than three days within the test site hiking toward ground zero before they were arrested at 6 p.m. Monday. All 12 said they were tested by a Department of Energy official for radiation exposure before they were sent to jail at nearby Beatty, Nev. “We were clean,” said one of the people arrested.

Bail was set at $260 each.

David Miller, a department spokesman, said none of the protesters got close enough to where they might have interfered with any testing activities.

He said the Greenpeace team was captured by special response forces “trained to hunt for people and go after bad guys.” The department plans to beef up its already-tight security in critical areas because of the illegal incursions, he said.

At the main arrest site, 90 of the protesters--after prayers, songs and testimonials--stepped over the entry point and into the arms of law enforcement officials who promptly arrested them for trespassing.

They crossed the line in groups of twos and threes while others--who remained behind--cheered wildly or joined in singing Bob Dylan’s song, “I Shall Be Released.”

At one point, three children--Shawna Walsh, 13, of Santa Barbara; Lucia Darvill, 12, of Sydney, Australia, and Jeremiah Sacks, 11, of Boston--stepped up to the line drawn by law enforcement officials, who pleaded with them not to cross it. Only one of them appeared to be accompanied by an adult.

“They’re not really old enough to do this,” Nye County Sheriff’s Lt. Jim Merlino told the crowd.

Then he turned to the children and said, “You’ve got lots of time to do this--you’ll be 21 before you know it.”

The children turned back.