120 Arrested at A-Test Protests in D.C., Nevada

At least 120 people were arrested today in demonstrations against nuclear weapons testing in Washington and at the nation’s testing grounds in Nevada, authorities said.

Several hundred protesters from the Great Peace March and other groups blocked entrances to the federal Department of Energy in Washington, and police estimated that between 60 and 100 of them were arrested.

At Mercury, Nev., some protesters briefly delayed buses carrying workers onto the sprawling test site by kneeling down in a roadway in front of the vehicles. Others, including actor Martin Sheen, were arrested when they stepped across a white line on the road leading to the test-site gate. Police said there were at least 60 arrests there.

Department of Energy spokesman Jim Boyer said about 100 turned out for the Nevada protest.

Face Various Charges

Those arrested were placed on a bus and taken to Beatty, Nev., where they faced various charges, including trespassing.

In Washington, the protesters chanted, “Heal the Earth!” and “Stop testing now!” as they sat in the department’s driveway and at various entrances to the building, preventing department employees from going to their jobs. The arrests were made without incident, and department employees began entering the building about 10:30 a.m.

Molly Rush, of a group called Plowshares, told the demonstrators that people support President Reagan’s anti-missile defense project known as “Star Wars” out of a sense of fear and a sense of hopelessness.

“There is something we can do--and we are here today as part of that process,” she said.

Washington police left the demonstrators, who included “Pentagon Papers” figure Daniel Ellsberg, in place for about an hour and then began making arrests. Some of the protesters sang, “We shall not be moved,” as police led them to paddy wagons.