Record 149 Arrested in Nevada Nuclear Protest

Protesters calling for an end to America’s nuclear weapons testing swarmed across a white no-trespassing line at the Nevada Test Site on Monday, resulting in a record 149 arrests, authorities said.

The Department of Energy said 222 protesters showed up for the vigil but the American Peace Test, the sponsoring group, said the turnout was closer to 350.

Protesters spent the morning singing, chanting, praying and listening to speakers, and then began crossing the white line in clusters of a dozen or more. The line crosses a road a mile from the site’s main gate.

The demonstrators walked into the arms of 30 waiting officers, who warned the protesters and then handcuffed those who continued on the road. Some protesters broke ranks and ran for a nearby fence that surrounds the desert site. They were rounded up by guards on off-road motorcycles.

The previous record for arrests came last August, when 121 were cited during a test site protest called the August Desert Witness.

Those arrested Monday included Daniel Ellsberg of Pentagon Papers fame; Anne Druyan, wife of physicist Carl Sagan; and Drs. John Mack and Lester Grinspoon of Harvard Medical School. The protesters were charged with misdemeanor trespassing. The charge carries a fine of $150 for first-time offenders.

Monday’s event was the finale of a three-day protest organized by the American Peace Test.

The main event was Saturday, when Sagan and others spoke to a crowd estimated at 250 by energy officials, 750 by Peace Test spokesmen.

Department of Energy officials conceded that Saturday’s turnout was the largest ever at the site, where America moved its nuclear weapons-testing program in January, 1951.

About 45 protesters gathered at the site Sunday to conduct religious services. They left after about an hour, according to department spokesman Jim Boyer, who also estimated the size of the crowds Saturday and Monday.

Protesters arrived just after dawn Monday. They walked two miles from U.S. 95 to an area near a road leading to Camp Desert Rock, an expanse of desert where thousands of troops were encamped in the 1950s to witness atmospheric nuclear tests.