Soviets Visit Vegas on Way to A-Test Site

A team of Soviet scientists spent the night in a posh hotel-casino in downtown’s Glitter Gulch before heading for the top-secret Nevada Test Site in a visit that could be a prelude to a nuclear test ban.

The leader of the 20-member delegation, Igor Palenykh, said on arrival Sunday night that he hopes that the visit will be the first step toward the goal of “limiting and eventually stopping all nuclear testing.”

The delegation arrived at McCarran International Airport after a flight via New York City.

The scientists were taken to the Golden Nugget Hotel and Casino, where guests watched the commotion caused by security guards and police.

The scientists went from their buses directly to the hotel elevators, seemingly oblivious of banks of slot machines in the lobby of the plush resort.

The scientists are to leave this afternoon for the tiny town of Mercury, the hub of the testing operation, and remain there until Friday. They are scheduled to return home Saturday.

The visit to the remote desert site 65 miles northwest of here follows a trip by U.S. scientists to the Soviet test site at Semipalatinsk in Central Asia on Jan. 11-14.

The visits, designed to familiarize U.S. and Soviet scientists with each other’s secret testing grounds, are a prelude to a possible exchange of test verification data later this year.

No weapons will be tested during this week’s visit.

Troy Wade, acting assistant secretary for defense programs, welcomed the Soviets and said they will be given the same information provided U.S. scientists in a trip to a Soviet test site two weeks ago.