N-Weapon Test Jolts Las Vegas, 85 Miles Away, Like a Quake

An underground nuclear weapon test jolted the desert floor and sent tremors through tall buildings here Friday while striking Nevada Test Site workers picketed 35 miles from ground zero.

The test was conducted as 3,000 union workers remained off the job in a five-week strike against the site’s main contractor.

“People thought we’d had an earthquake,” said Susan Stone, a switchboard supervisor at the Union Plaza Hotel in downtown Las Vegas, 85 miles from ground zero. Operators received “a lot of calls” from concerned hotel guests, Stone said.

An employee in the city manager’s office atop Las Vegas City Hall said tremors from the 9 a.m. blast lasted for about a minute.

‘Plants Were Moving’

“The motion seemed quite strong,” said the woman, who declined to give her name. “Desk plants were moving back and forth.”

“There’s strong ground motion, some rocking,” said Energy Department spokesman Jim Boyer, who was at the site’s control point 15 miles from ground zero. “The building is shaking moderately. I have felt stronger motion.”

The blast measured 5.4 on the Richter scale at the National Earthquake Information Center in Golden, Colo. Previous tests have registered as high as 5.7.

Boyer said there was no indication of problems with Friday’s test. He said monitors indicated no radiation had leaked from the 1,800-foot-deep shaft drilled into Yucca Flat.

The test, code-named Borate, was listed as having an explosive force of up to 150,000 tons of TNT, more than 11 times the force of the atomic bomb that devastated Hiroshima in World War II. The exact explosive yield is classified, Boyer said.

Borate was the 13th announced U.S. nuclear test this year. Not all tests are announced for security reasons. The government has announced 672 tests at the site since testing began in Nevada in January, 1951.

3,000 Walk Out

More than 3,000 union workers have been off the job at the test site since Sept. 15, honoring picket lines set up by striking Culinary Union workers. A total of 8,300 people are employed at the site.

“To conduct a test you don’t need thousands of workers,” Boyer said. Only 350 workers were needed to conduct Friday’s test, he said.

Culinary workers vowed at the start of the strike they would shut down testing.

“The strike has not set us back one bit,” Boyer said. But he said the walkout could cause problems if it drags on for months.

Striking workers include miners, teamsters, ironworkers and others who are primarily involved in digging tunnels and shafts in which the tests are conducted.