Front-Row Seats for Soviet Scientists at Nevada A-Test

For the first time in the 43-year history of the Atomic Age, Soviet scientists today had front-row seats at the Nevada Test Site to record and monitor the detonation of a U.S. nuclear weapon.

A nuclear bomb a dozen times more powerful than the one that leveled Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, was exploded 2,000 feet below the barren Nevada desert at 10 a.m.

Helicopters and airplanes circled the area to check for radiation leaks. Shock waves from the Joint Verification Experiment, code-named “Kearsarge,” reached Las Vegas, 100 miles away, a minute after the explosion but caused only a gentle sway in tall buildings.

“I have spent the last 40 years developing nuclear weapons to protect this country,” said Troy Wade, acting assistant secretary for defense programs at the Department of Energy. “Protect from whom? Principally, the Soviet Union. Now, suddenly, here they are. There is definitely an emotional response to that.”

“What is so significant is the Soviet presence and the test’s place in history which could lead to some meaningful arms treaties,” said Chris West, also of the Energy Department, which operates the test site.

Head of Soviet Delegation

Igor Palenykh, head of the Soviet arms control delegation in Geneva, and Ambassador C. Paul Roberts, his U.S. counterpart, arrived at the test site this week to witness the detonation.

Negotiators from both nations agree that the long-range results of the unique experiment could be the negotiation of a test ban treaty.

Forty-five Soviets have been in Nevada since April preparing for the unprecedented event. American scientists also are in the Soviet Union getting ready for a similar test next month at the Semipalatinsk test facility in Soviet Central Asia.

The purpose of the joint nuclear experiment is to demonstrate different options from which the nations can choose to assure compliance with test limitation treaties and to show that compliance can be verified without jeopardizing the military secrets of either nation.

The two sides have similar but independent monitoring technologies involving methods designed to detect and measure explosions from near the blast and from great distances.

Will Compare Notes

During each nuclear test, the host nation is to explode one of its own nuclear weapons while scientists from both nations measure the size or yield of the detonation, then compare notes.

About 20 members of America Peace Test, an anti-nuclear organization, began picketing at 6 a.m. at the test site gates, which are about 60 miles from ground zero at Pahute Mesa--an isolated 5,000-foot plateau. Several were arrested by security guards for trying to block traffic. The demonstrators carried American flags and peace banners.

A dozen protesters participated in a candlelight vigil Tuesday night in front of the federal building in downtown Las Vegas, singing songs of the 1960s and waving peace signs.