Nevada nuclear test site arrests and jail time
Two nuclear abolitionists are in a Nevada jail this week, each serving four days in lieu of a community service sentence, following their convictions for trespassing on the Nevada National Security Site last spring.
Samuel Chawla-Rios and Brian Terrell were arrested with three others on Good Friday, April 3, at the conclusion of the 2026 Sacred Peace Walk. The Walk is an annual pilgrimage from Las Vegas to the nuclear weapons test site, about 70 miles northwest of the city.
They had both returned to Nevada to celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day, October 12, as allies of the Western Shoshone. The indigenous tribe’s traditional lands were seized by the United States to create the expansive test site in 1951 without their consent, and have since been used to explosively test over 1,000 nuclear warheads. On that day, John Amidon of Albany, NY, Eri Bolger from Minneapolis, Minnesota and Richard Bishop of Stevensville, Montana were cited for trespass by the Nye County Sheriff’s department after crossing the line at the Mercury gate to the contaminated site.
The small group of demonstrators were told that if anyone crossing the line did not have official identification, they would be taken to jail for processing instead of the usual procedure to release those arrested after processing on-site. Amidon tested the policy by crossing the line while carrying the permit issued by the Western Shoshone, granting him permission to enter their lands as his only identification. Despite the threat, he was released on-site with the other two arrestees.
The next morning, Chawla-Rios and Terrell turned themselves in at the Nye County Jail in Pahrump to serve their sentences. The men will be released on Saturday, October 17.
Chawla-Rios wrote this brief reflection about going to jail last summer after being sentenced.