438 PROTESTERS ARE ARRESTED AT NEVADA NUCLEAR TEST SITE, 1987

438 PROTESTERS ARE ARRESTED AT NEVADA NUCLEAR TEST SITE

By ROBERT LINDSEY, Special to the New York Times
Published: February 6, 1987

More than 400 people were arrested today when they tried to enter the nation's nuclear proving grounds here after nearly 2,000 demonstrators, including six members of Congress, held a rally to protest nuclear weapons testing.

In a scene that at times recalled the antiwar protests of the 1960's, 438 demonstrators, some carrying American flags, were arrested as they marched past the entrance to the 1,350-square-mile Nevada Test Site. Among those arrested were the astronomer Carl Sagan and the actors Martin Sheen, Kris Kristofferson and Robert Blake.

The protesters who were arrested were taken in buses to nearby Beatty, Nev., where they were booked and released. A spokesman for the Department of Energy said 433 of those arrested were charged with trespassing and five were charged with resisting arrest. They will face trial at a later date.

The march came after a rally protesting the Reagan Administration's resumption of nuclear weapons testing despite a Soviet moratorium on the testing of new weapons. The demonstration at the desert test site 65 miles north of Las Vegas was organized by a consortium of groups that included Greenpeace, the American Peace Test, Physicians for Social Responsibility and the Peace Committee of the American Public Health Association. Test Moved Up Two Days

The demonstration was initially called to protest the nation's first nuclear test of the year, which had been scheduled for today. But the Department of Energy rescheduled the test, in part because of the demonstration, and detonated the weapon Tuesday.

Standing beneath a banner that read ''Nuremberg Requires That We Act,'' Representative Pat Schroeder, a Colorado Democrat, assailed what she called President Reagan's ''Rambo-type foreign policy.''

She said, ''I think the President's pushing the test two days ahead of schedule when the American people didn't want to test, when Congress didn't want to test, when the world didn't want to test, was the most arrogant exercise of power I've seen in a long time.''

Five other Democratic members of Congress also attended the rally. They were Representatives Thomas J. Downey of Suffolk, Mike Lowry of Washington and Jim Bates, Leon E. Panetta and Barbara Boxer of California. They left before the demonstrators entered the test site.

''We came basically to make sure that the people protesting here know they are not alone, that their message is being heard in Washington,'' Mr. Downey said in an interview.

One demonstrator, Hugh DeWitt, a physicist at the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory in California, said he and other technical specialists here had concluded from seismic measurements that Tuesday's test was ''of extremely low yield, equivalent to less than five tons of TNT,'' far smaller than any other announced test.

''Either it completely fizzled or it was experimental in nature,'' he said.

Owen Chamberlain, a University of California professor and winner of the 1959 Nobel Prize for Physics, said he was puzzled not only that so small a weapon had been tested, but also that ''they had gone out of their way to make an announcement about it.'' Such a step, he suggested, was likely to goad the Soviet Union into ending its 18-month moratorium on nuclear testing. A Highly Organized Protest

Although today's protest scene at the Nevada Test Site was reminiscent of the 1960's, it was unlike the often disorganized, spontaneous peace demonstrations of that era and, indeed, was marketed with a promotional flair befitting Madison Avenue.

In recent weeks, news organizations have received numerous announcements and telephone calls about the event. Representatives of the sponsoring groups have appeared on network television shows in recent weeks, and today's arrests, which took place at 10 A.M., Pacific standard time, were timed to gain maximum publicity.

''Why do you think they scheduled the arrests at 10 o'clock?'' said Don Oliver, a correspondent for NBC News. ''So they could make the evening news.'' U.S. NUCLEAR TEST DEFENDED GENEVA, Feb. 5 (Special to The New York Times) - Kenneth L. Adelman, director of the United States Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, today defended the decision to conduct a nuclear test Tuesday despite warnings that the Soviet Union would end a self-imposed moratorium on nuclear testing with the first United States test of this year.

''If the Soviets want to resume tests, as I understand that they do, let them resume tests,'' he said.

Mr. Adelman also asserted that the timing of the test, which had initially been scheduled for today, was not connected with the start Tuesday of the 1987 session of the 40-nation Geneva Conference. Soviet officials implied that the test was ''cynically timed'' to coincide with the opening of the conference.

Soviet officials here echoed comments from Moscow that the Soviet Union would resume nuclear testing, but would only say that the tests would begin again at an ''appropriate time.''

Photo of Kris Kristofferson and Martin Sheen (AP)