51 Held in Protest at Atomic Test Site
MERCURY, Nev. — Authorities arrested 51 protesters on trespassing and public nuisance charges in a Good Friday demonstration aimed at the nation’s nuclear testing program.
More than 200 anti-nuclear activists turned out for the sixth annual Lenten protest at the Nevada Test Site.
Some of the protesters were arrested on trespassing charges after they stepped across a white line on a road leading to the test site gates, according to U.S. Energy Department spokesman Jim Boyer. Others were arrested when they sat down in the middle of the road.
Boyer said traffic onto the desert site was not delayed by the demonstration.
Friday’s protest was much smaller than a Feb. 5 demonstration that drew 1,500 people and resulted in 438 arrests on public nuisance charges.
A new twist this year was a counterdemonstration by a group calling itself Americans for Nuclear Testing. A dozen people in the group carried signs calling for continued nuclear testing.
Meanwhile, in Livermore, Calif., 36 protesters were arrested Friday after blocking a gate at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory after a religious service for 400 people aimed at protesting the proliferation of nuclear weapons.
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