72 Arrested in Protest at Test Site in Nevada

Seventy-two anti-nuclear demonstrators, including film star Martin Sheen, were arrested Tuesday outside the Nevada nuclear test site while protesting what they said were plans to stage another test explosion.

About 250 took part in the protest, which marked the 36th anniversary of the first nuclear test at the site. Some of the protesters kneeled in small groups on the road trying to block vehicles loaded with workers from entering the classified government facility in the desert.

Guards on motorcycles chased away at least half a dozen demonstrators trying to scale a fence at the test site. Valerie Schloresky of California poured a vial of what she said was her own blood on the asphalt road and shouted, “This is the blood of our future.”

Sheen, 46, whose films include “The Missiles of October” and “Apocalypse Now,” was arrested on a state warrant accusing him of threatening to commit a crime and was released on a cash bond of $5,000. He had told the media that he would be a protester.

He was also arrested last June, on a charge of trespassing outside a New York research institute. The charge was later dismissed.

Of the other demonstrators arrested Tuesday, 25 were accused of trespassing and two with unlawfully posting a traffic stop sign. The others were charged with trying to obstruct traffic.