BETHLEHEM MAN TAKES "LONG SHOT' FOR PEACE.(Main)

Byline: Ken Thurman

A Capital District man was among the protesters who traveled to an atomic test site near here to protest the explosion of a U.S. nuclear bomb Thursday.

David Burtis of Bethlehem, a statistician for the state, said the test bomb was only about one seventh as powerful as the one dropped on Hiroshima, Japan during World War II, but its impact on world peace in the long run could be much more devastating.

"We were trying to prevent the U.S. from conducting a test that would break a moratorium," Burtis said.

Burtis said he doesn't understand why the U.S. is in such a "rush" to test nuclear weapons since the Soviets have not …