A-Test Canceled 2nd Time; U.S. Denounces Protesters

The government today scrubbed an underground nuclear test for the second straight day and said protesters who again infiltrated the Nevada Test Site have to be regarded as possible terrorists.

Rep. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said he had been informed unofficially by the Department of Energy that the test was postponed for a variety of reasons, including weather, technical problems and the protests.

“We know the bomb did not go off,” Reid said. “The least credible of those reasons is arms posturing with the Soviets.”

The Soviet Union has maintained a unilateral nuclear test moratorium, and the U.S. decision to continue testing has become a major issue between the two superpowers.

John Murphy, a spokesman for the anti-nuclear groups Southern California Nuclear Freeze and American Peace Test, said an unknown number of protesters sneaked onto the 1,350-square-mile research facility before dawn today.

‘Well Provisioned’

Murphy said the anti-nuclear activists are “well provisioned” to remain on the desert government compound for a number of days.

“Those people out there are no joke,” said Department of Energy spokesman David Miller. “We have to assume that those people are there for malevolent purposes. Some of them may be terrorists who have infiltrated the peace groups and have hostile intents.”

Miller said 210 demonstrators gathered this morning at the Test Site entrance at Mercury, about 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

Anti-nuclear protesters set out for the third straight day to reach the test site where the detonation was planned.

“Our people are on the test site, and our objective is the same as (that of) the 12 who were on the test site Monday and Tuesday,” Murphy said.

Weather, Technical Problems

On Tuesday, Energy Department sources blamed the delay in the weapons detonation--scheduled in the face of protest from Congress, the Soviet Union and the demonstrators--variously on high winds in the Nevada desert and technical problems.

But demonstrators said they were responsible for the scrubbing.

A dozen anti-testing activists, including Daniel Ellsberg, who released the Pentagon Papers in the 1970s, were arrested Tuesday after invading the test site before the decision to postpone was revealed. Another 90 people were arrested when they walked across the boundary of the site. All refused to sign their citations and were held pending appearances before a justice of the peace.

Despite an earlier barrage of criticism of the American test, the Soviet Union’s government-controlled media were silent after the blast was canceled.

The test originally would have taken place Tuesday while President Reagan was meeting with departing Soviet Ambassador Anatoly F. Dobrynin in Washington. White House spokesman Larry Speakes said the postponement was not related to the meeting.