10 arrested in protest against nuclear testing

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Tuesday, April 9, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

As 60 nuclear protesters erected a tepee in the middle of the road leading to the Nevada Test Site, 10 chained themselves to a cattle guard and were arrested for trespassing, a U.S. Department of Energy official said.

The protest occurred Monday at the main gate leading to Mercury, the main base of the Test Site, once the focus of above- and below-ground nuclear weapons experiments, said Nancy Harkess, DOE spokeswoman.

Another 40 demonstrators on bicycles blocked the northern entrance to the Test Site, she said.

During an Easter Sunday demonstration, 250 people attended and 90 of them were arrested for trespassing, ending a week-long demonstration against nuclear weapons.

The Test Site, 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas, has been downsizing since a nuclear testing moratorium took effect in 1992.