Nuclear Weapon Detonated in Desert

LAS VEGAS — A powerful nuclear weapon was detonated in the Nevada desert Tuesday, 40 miles from a point where about 500 physicians and peace activists protested and 139, including astronomer Carl Sagan, were later arrested.

The demonstrators listened in silence to a Department of Energy countdown of the test at Pahute Mesa over loudspeakers at an area dubbed Camp Desert Rock, where tens of thousands of military personnel took part in atmospheric nuclear tests three decades ago.

Sagan, his wife, Ann Druyan, and Dr. Jack Geiger, head of the anti-nuclear group Physicians for Social Responsibility, linked arms 30 minutes after the test to become the first protesters arrested for misdemeanor trespassing when they walked across a white line on a road leading to the test site’s main gate. The arrestees were handcuffed and bused to nearby Beatty, Nev., for arraignment. Most signed citations promising to appear in court Oct. 23 or 29.

Geiger, one of several speakers calling for a test ban, related how he met with a critically ill victim of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster three months ago in Moscow.

“Standing there looking at him made the thought of nuclear war not an abstraction, but something that came down to this single human being,” he said. “The currency of the arms race is human beings. We are the bargaining chips and we will no longer passively sit by.”