January 1, 1986
The arrest of 10 anti-nuclear activists for trespassing at Nevada Test Site culminated a 54-day encampment at the main Test Site gate. The camp establishes momentum for what became a movement of over 10,000 arrests in numerous Test Site protests over the following years. The site was established on 11 January 1951 for the testing of nuclear devices; 100 atmospheric tests were conducted in the 1950s. When underground explosions ended in 1992, the Department of Energy estimated that more than 300 megacuries (11 EBq) of radioactivity remained in the environment at that time, making the site one of the most radioactively contaminated locations in the United States.
