Nevada Desert Experience

Members of Nevada Desert Experience hold a prayer vigil during the Easter period of 1982 at the entrance to the Nevada Test Site.

November 1951 nuclear test at Nevada Test Site

The Nevada Desert Experience is a name for the movement to stop U.S. nuclear weapons testing that came into use in the middle 1980s. It is also the name of an anti-nuclear organization which continues to create public events to question the morality and intelligence of the U.S. nuclear weapons program, with a main focus on the United States Department of Energy's (DOE) Nevada Test Site (now renamed the Nevada National Security Site).

History

In the spring of 1982 activists working for social justice, environmental preservation, and international peace organized a six-week peace vigil at the entrance to the Nevada Test Site, about 60 miles (100 km) from Las Vegas, Nevada. In 1983 they repeated the vigil, calling it the 'Lenten Desert Experience'.^[1] This anarchist group of Christian organizers decided that the program had been successful enough to start an organization, which led to a faith-based aspect to the nuclear abolition movement. They named it 'Nevada Desert Experience' or NDE because of the work within the prayer-actions for peace that included learning to appreciate the Mojave and the Great Basin Deserts of North America. Organizers believed that appreciation of the beauty and power of the natural environment, coupled with a universal code of ethics (the Golden Rule) organically leads humans to make a stand for peace and environmental justice.

Aims

The movement's immediate goal of ending nuclear testing at the Nevada Test Site was met in 1992, when President George H. W. Bush signed a moratorium on underground nuclear weapons tests.^[2] The abolition movement, led by NDE and the Western Shoshone-based Shundahai Network were sparked back into action with the renewal of non-nuclear explosions at the Nevada Test Site in 1997. These "subcritical" bombs use fissile materials which do not reach the self-sustaining chain reaction of a typical nuclear bomb. The bombs are designed by Los Alamos National Laboratory and Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, whereby the data collected can be fed to computers to simulate full-scale nuclear explosions for the US National Security Agency (NSA) and DOE. Their explosive yield is low, and small amounts of radiation may be released. Because each sub-critical experiment costs roughly US$20 million and much time from the humans working within the nuclear weapons management industry, the tests indicate to nuclear abolition activists a strong continued interest (within the U.S. Government) in favor of nuclear weapons. Therefore, the NDE continues to work for deep ecological sensitivities and social peacemaking, with one goal being to clean up and contain the contamination created by 55 years of nuclear testing in Nevada and Western Shoshone country.

Protests

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.^[3] In 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.^[4] On February 5, 1987, more than 400 people were arrested, when they tried to enter the nation's nuclear proving grounds after nearly 2,000 demonstrators held a rally to protest nuclear weapons testing. Those arrested included the astronomer Carl Sagan, privacy advocate Phil Zimmermann,^[5] and the actors Kris Kristofferson, Martin Sheen, and Robert Blake. Five Democratic members of Congress attended the rally: Thomas J. Downey, Mike Lowry, Jim Bates, Leon E. Panetta and Barbara Boxer.^[6]^[7]

In protest over UAV attacks in Pakistan and the perceived extremely high danger of harming civilians,^[8]^[9]^[10] in an event sponsored by Nevada Desert Experience, Father Louie Vitale, Kathy Kelly, Stephen Kelly SJ, John Dear, and others were arrested outside Creech Air Force Base (adjacent to the Nevada National Security Site) on Wednesday April 9, 2009.^[11] Subsequent monthly protests have been ongoing and conducted by a number of organizations including Code Pink.^[12]

References

↑ http://www.nevadadesertexperience.org/history/history.htm
↑ "The Status of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty: Signatories and Ratifiers". Arms Control Association. March 2014. Retrieved June 29, 2014.
↑ Western Shoshone spiritual leader dies July 18, 2007. Elynews.com
↑ Actor and Other Protesters Arrested at Nuclear Test Site
↑ Ranger, Steve (June 23, 2015). "Defending the last missing pixels: Phil Zimmermann speaks out on encryption, privacy, and avoiding a surveillance state". TechRepublic.
↑ Robert Lindsey. 438 Protesters are Arrested at Nevada Nuclear Test Site New York Times, February 6, 1987.
↑ Biggest Demonstration Yet at Test Site
↑ Nevada Desert Experience : Predators & Reapers - Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
↑ Combat Drones: Losing the Fight Against Terrorism Peace Policy.nd. October 1, 2009
↑ Obama Steps Up Drone Bombings Despite Civilian Deaths
↑ VCNV
↑ CODEPINK : Peace activists to rally Monday outside Creech Air Force Base: Will call for end to U.S. drone attacks in Afghanistan, Pakistan codepink4peace.org

Pilgrimage Through a Burning World, by Ken Butigan, Chronicles and discusses the political and religious aspects of the nonviolent protest against nuclear testing called the Nevada Desert Experience. 2003, 256 pp., paper.

External links

Official website
Western States Legal Foundation Non-profit, public interest organization which monitors and analyzes U.S. nuclear weapons programs
Poison Fire USA Animated map of nuclear activities in the United States

Anti-nuclear movement

Protests and groups	Anti-nuclear organizations Anti-nuclear power groups Anti-nuclear protests Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament Greenpeace International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons International Day against Nuclear Tests International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War Mayors for Peace Nuclear Information and Resource Service Nevada Desert Experience Nuclear Weapons Freeze Campaign Peace Action and SANE Physicians for Social Responsibility Pembina Institute Sortir du nucléaire World Uranium Hearing

By country	Australia Austria Canada France Germany India Japan Kazakhstan New Zealand Philippines Poland Russia South Africa South Korea Spain Sweden Switzerland Taiwan Turkey United Kingdom United States

People	Tadatoshi Akiba Daniel Berrigan Albert Bigelow Helen Caldicott Norman Cousins Gordon Edwards Albert Einstein Randall Forsberg John Gofman Jim Green Paul Gunter Otto Hahn Nobuto Hosaka Jackie Hudson Kate Hudson Ole Kopreitan David Lange Amory Lovins Caroline Lucas Freda Meissner-Blau Gregory Minor Hermann Joseph Muller Kenzaburo Oe Linus Pauling Mike Pentz Nicanor Perlas C. F. Powell Adi Roche Joseph Rotblat Bertrand Russell Jens Scheer Jonathan Schell Harvey Wasserman

Media	Books about nuclear issues Films about nuclear issues Nuclear holocaust fiction Nuclear weapons in popular culture Songs about nuclear war and weapons

Related topics	Anti-war movement Bikini Atoll Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists France and weapons of mass destruction Göttingen Manifesto History of the anti-nuclear movement Lists of nuclear disasters and radioactive incidents Mainau Declaration Nuclear-Free Future Award Nuclear-free zone Nuclear power debate Nuclear power phase-out Nuclear weapons debate Peace activists Otto Hahn Peace Medal Peace movement Peace camp Russell–Einstein Manifesto Stockholm International Peace Research Institute Smiling Sun The Bomb

Nuclear weapons tests of the United States

Operations

Testing areas

Nevada	Area 15 Area 16 Area 18 Area 30 Frenchman Flat Pahute Mesa Rainier Mesa Yucca Flat

other	South Atlantic Pacific Proving Grounds Alamogordo Amchitka Carlsbad Central Nevada Sand Springs Range Carson National Forest Parachute Salmon Site Nevada Test and Training Range Rifle

Related topics

Anti-nuclear movement in the United States

General	Anti-nuclear groups in the US California movement Great Peace March Nuclear history of the United States Nuclear power in the US Canceled nuclear plants in the US Nuclear weapons and the US Protests in the US Anti-nuclear advocates in the US

Organizations and groups	Abalone Alliance Alliance for Nuclear Responsibility Clamshell Alliance Committee for Nuclear Responsibility Corporate Accountability International Critical Mass Energy Project Friends of the Earth Greenpeace USA Institute for Energy and Environmental Research Mothers for Peace Musicians United for Safe Energy Nevada Desert Experience Nuclear Control Institute Nuclear Information and Resource Service Physicians for Social Responsibility Plowshares Movement Public Citizen Shad Alliance Sierra Club Three Mile Island Alert Women Strike for Peace

People	Daniel Berrigan Larry Bogart Pierce Brosnan Helen Caldicott Barry Commoner Frances Crowe Carrie Barefoot Dickerson Paul M. Doty Jane Fonda Randall Forsberg John Gofman Paul Gunter John Hall Jackie Hudson Sam Lovejoy Amory Lovins Gregory Minor Hermann Joseph Muller Ralph Nader Graham Nash Linus Pauling Eugene Rabinowitch Phil Radford Bonnie Raitt Martin Sheen Karen Silkwood Thomas Louie Vitale Harvey Wasserman Victor Weisskopf

Main protest sites	Black Fox Bodega Bay Diablo Canyon Indian Point Lawrence Livermore Montague Naval Base Kitsap Nevada Test Site Rancho Seco Rocky Flats San Onofre Seabrook Shoreham Three Mile Island Trojan Vermont Yankee White House Peace Vigil Y-12 Weapons Plant Yankee Rowe

Books	Carbon-Free and Nuclear-Free Conservation Fallout: Nuclear Protest at Diablo Canyon Contesting the Future of Nuclear Power Critical Masses: Opposition to Nuclear Power in California, 1958-1978 The Cult of the Atom The Doomsday Machine (book) Fallout: An American Nuclear Tragedy Killing Our Own Licensed to Kill? The Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Shoreham Power Plant Making a Real Killing: Rocky Flats and the Nuclear West Nuclear Implosions: The Rise and Fall of the Washington Public Power Supply System Nuclear Politics in America We Almost Lost Detroit

Films	Atomic Ed and the Black Hole The China Syndrome Countdown to Zero Dark Circle Nuclear Tipping Point Silkwood

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