992 Held in 9th Day of Protest at Nuclear Test Site April 16, 1989

MERCURY, Nev. — Nearly 1,000 anti-nuclear protesters were arrested on misdemeanor trespass charges at the nation's nuclear testing grounds Saturday.

Energy Department spokesman Jim Boyer said 992 demonstrators had been arrested as of late afternoon and protesters promised more arrests later in the evening.

Boyer estimated that 1,500 people turned out Saturday for the ninth day of the annual "Reclaim the Test Site" protest at the Nevada Test Site. The event ends today.

Those arrested were taken to the Nye County sheriff's office in Beatty, 55 miles away, where they were to be released after being cited on the misdemeanor charge, Boyer said.

Nye County officials announced earlier this month that they would no longer prosecute the trespassers because of the growing number of protests and arrests at the remote desert site.

A total of 2,818 arrests were reported at the site last year, including 2,065 during the 1988 "Reclaim the Test Site" action.

More than 100 law officers were on hand to collect and handcuff the demonstrators as they walked across a cattle guard on the main road leading to the test site.

The cattle guard has been a rallying point for protests the last eight years, and law officers have arrested activists who crossed that point onto test site property.

Anti-nuclear protests in the United States (not complete, but interesting)

http://www.nuclear-heritage.net/index.php/Anti-nuclear_protests_in_the_United_States 

Anti-nuclear protests in the United States

This is a list of notable anti-nuclear protests in the United States. Many anti-nuclear campaigns captured national public attention in the 1970s and 1980s, including those at Seabrook Station Nuclear Power Plant, Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant and those following the 1979 Three Mile Island accident.^[1]

The largest anti-nuclear demonstration to date was held in New York City on September 23, 1979 when almost 200,000 people attended. The New York rally was held in conjunction with a series of nightly “No Nukes” concerts given at Madison Square Garden from September 19 through 23.

Anti-nuclear protests preceded the shutdown of the Shoreham, Yankee Rowe, Millstone I, Rancho Seco, Maine Yankee, and about a dozen other nuclear power plants.^[2]

Nevada Test Site

From 1986 through 1994, two years after the United States put a hold on full-scale nuclear weapons testing, 536 demonstrations were held at the Nevada Test Site involving 37,488 participants and 15,740 arrests, according to government records.^[64] These are just a few details:

• January, 1987: The actor Martin Sheen and 71 other anti-nuclear protesters were arrested at the Nevada Test Site in a demonstration marking the 36th anniversary of the first nuclear test there.^[65]
• February 6, 1987: More than 400 people were arrested, when they tried to enter the nation's nuclear proving grounds after nearly 2,000 demonstrators, including six members of Congress, held a rally to protest nuclear weapons testing.^[66][67]
• September 30, 1987: 110 demonstrators, including seven pediatricians, were arrested for civil disobedience; charges were later dropped.^[68]
• March 20, 1989: 75 protesters, including Louis Vitale, were arrested for trespassing in a peaceful Palm Sunday demonstration.^[69]
• April 20, 1992: 493 anti-nuclear protesters were arrested on misdemeanor charges, as demonstrators clashed with guards at an annual Easter demonstration against weapons testing at the remote desert site.^[70]
• August 6, 1995: 500 people gathered to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima.^[71]
• 1997: Over 2,000 people turned out for a demonstration and 700 were arrested.^[72]
• August 2005: About 200 peace activists, including actor Martin Sheen, gathered for a nonviolent demonstration outside the gates; dozens were given citations and released after crossing police lines.^[73]
• May 2006: 200 activists protested the Divine Strake explosives test, and 40 were arrested.^[74]
• April 2007: Nevada Desert Experience protest, where 39 people were cited by police.^[75]

400 Arrested In Big Protest At Nev. Test Site, 1987

By David Kelley, United Press International (Inquirer staff writer Linda Loyd contributed to this article.)

POSTED: February 06, 1987

MERCURY, Nev. — More than 400 protesters, including entertainers and scientists, were arrested yesterday at the Nevada Test Site during an anti-nuclear demonstration.

Entertainers Robert Blake, Kris Kristofferson and Martin Sheen were among those handcuffed and taken to nearby Beatty, Nev., where they were booked on trespassing charges and released for trial in March.

Astronomer-author Carl Sagan, his wife, Ann Druyan, and peace activist Daniel Ellsberg also deliberately walked onto government property and were arrested.

The protest, 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas, had been planned for weeks and was designed to coincide with the first U.S. nuclear weapons test of 1987, an explosion the Soviet Union said would end its 18-month unilateral test moratorium.

The Department of Energy carried out the test Tuesday - two days early. A department spokesman acknowledged that the planned mass protest yesterday was a motivating factor in moving up the test.

Demonstration organizers said their ranks were 2,000 strong. The Department of Energy estimated the crowd at 750.

The protest was the largest in more than six years of demonstrations at the 1,800-square-mile test site, where 660 nuclear weapons have been detonated since 1951.

A total of 438 demonstrators deliberately walked onto the site and were arrested, authorities said. All were charged with trespassing, except for five people accused of resisting arrest.

"It certainly was the largest demonstration in the history of the nuclear testing site," Sagan said. "It is an indication of the growth of our movement."

Meanwhile, a group of 30 Philadelphia physicians yesterday called Tuesday's nuclear test "an unconscionable use of our scarce resources" at a time when important government health programs and other human services were being slashed.

The physicians - in a statement read at a Center City news conference by Lewis W. Bluemle Jr., president of Jefferson Medical College - called for an end to nuclear testing and expressed concern that the test endangered international health by squandering an opportunity to slow the arms race.

Bluemle and the doctors are members of the Philadelphia chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility, the U.S. arm of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, which won the 1985 Nobel Peace Prize.

Orlando Sentinal Articles from 1992 and 1989

Hundreds Are Arrested In Nevada Nuclear Protest

April 21, 1992

MERCURY, NEV. — Hundreds of nuclear protesters were arrested on misdemeanor charges as activists clashed with guards at an annual Easter demonstration against weapons testing at this remote desert site. Some protesters and guards suffered cuts and scrapes on Sunday when about 100 activists rushed across a cattle guard on a road near the Nevada Test Site, federal officials said. Authorities made 493 arrests on Sunday and 138 on Saturday, officials said. They estimated the number of protesters at 1,000.

Major underground nuclear weapons test rocked...

NUKE TEST. A

March 10, 1989

YUCCA FLAT, NEV. — NUKE TEST. A major underground nuclear weapons test rocked the Nevada desert at dawn Thursday, unleashing a shock felt atop some Las Vegas hotel-casinos 85 miles away, authorities said. The test carried a force of 20 to 150 kilotons, the highest allowed under arms treaties, and created a shock that registered 5.1 on the Richter scale. All U.S. tests are listed as either less than 20 kilotons or as 20 to 150 kilotons. Thirteen protesters demonstrated at the main entrance to the desert site, and 11 were arrested for trespassing. It was the third blast at the Nevada Test Site this year.