Nevada Desert Experience photo
from the Nevada Desert Experience
Twenty-two people were arrested on Good Friday, April 3 at the Nevada nuclear test site. The activists, from eight different U.S. states and Germany, Japan and the Netherlands, had crossed over the cattle guard that marks the boundary of the Nevada National Security Site (formerly known as the Nevada Test Site).
The action marked the culmination of the annual Sacred Peace Walk, which began on March 29, Palm Sunday. It is organized each year by the Nevada Desert Experience, a 33-year-old faith-based group. About a dozen of the group of 50 or so walkers, including Buddhist monks and nuns, are part of several legs of a walk taking place in different parts of the U.S. on the way to the United Nations in New York City for the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty Review Conference. Chief Johnny Bobb of the Western Shoshone also participated in the Walk.
Responding to renewed calls to resume testing of nuclear weapons, to store high level nuclear waste and increase the use of drone assassinations, all at U.S. government facilities in Nevada, the Sacred Peace Walkers experienced the Nevada desert in a direct way by walking about 13 miles per day. In addition to the action at the Nevada nuclear test site, the peace walkers prayed with Chief Johnny Bobb at Yucca Mountain, and held a protest at Creech drone base which resulted in three arrests.
The Nevada Desert Experience has organized annual peace walks to the nuclear test site and the historic Peace Camp (south side at US-Hwy 95 Mercury Exit) since 1996.