LAS VEGAS, April 3 (UPI) -- Actor Martin Sheen once again has shown his political side, turning up among nuclear disarmament activists cited for trespassing on a Nevada test site.
Sheen, 66, who played the president in the TV drama "West Wing," was in a group of 39 protestors taken into custody Sunday after stepping over a "Do Not Cross" line painted on the road at the entrance to the Nevada Test Site facility northwest of Las Vegas, E! News said Tuesday. They were held in a fenced-in area until the demonstration was over.
The protest was organized after federal officials planned the underground detonation of 700 tons of conventional explosives on June 23 to study the impact of so-called bunker-busting bombs. The demonstrators expressed concern about the potential for the release into the atmosphere of radioactive materials left over from previous nuclear testing and that the test could lead to the deployment of tactical nuclear weapons.
While there was no immediate comment from Sheen's publicist, the actor has taken public political stances many times over the years, including animal treatment issues, abortion rights, nuclear disarmament, the war in Iraq and the detention of suspects at the Guantanamo Bay facility in Cuba.
