10-Day Nevada Test Site Protest Ends

MERCURY, Nev. — Anti-nuclear protesters concluded 10 days of nonviolent demonstrations Sunday at the Nevada Test Site, the nation’s center for the nuclear weapons testing program.

Thirty-six people were arrested Sunday, including four women discovered south of the Mercury fence “and one man found just on the outskirts of Yucca Flat,” Department of Energy spokesman Jim Boyer said.

Thirty-one of the Sunday demonstrators were taken to the jail in Beatty, about 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, where they were cited on charges of trespassing and released. The four women were released on their own recognizance, Boyer said.

Organizers said about 80 protesters drove to Yucca Mountain on Sunday, the site of a proposed high-level nuclear waste storage facility. Yucca Mountain, situated outside the boundaries of the Nevada Test Site, is not a classified area.