A Greenpeace ship seized by the Soviets after it approached an Arctic nuclear test site was released Saturday and headed for Norway, a member of the environmental group said. None of the 42 activists detained were charged following more than five days at a naval base near the port of Murmansk, about 900 miles north of Moscow, Canadian activist Steve Shallhorn said by radiotelephone from the ship. The ship was expected to reach the Norwegian port of Kirkenes by early Sunday. Last Monday, the Soviet Coast Guard fired warning shots from deck-mounted machine guns before boarding the MV Greenpeace. Four environmentalists in a rubber raft had earlier managed to reach one of the Novaya Zemlya islands in the Barents Sea and collect radioactive soil and other samples, Shallhorn said. The ship was towed to the naval base, where it was held for violating Soviet territorial waters. Shallhorn said the four activists spent 10 hours on the island before being captured. Novaya Zemlya was a primary nuclear test site from 1958 to 1963. Environmental groups claim it was last used in 1988. ``They tried to hide samples in their packs, their pockets, even their socks, but the (Soviets) went through everything with a Geiger counter and found everything,'' Shallhorn said. He said the 35 Western and seven Soviet activists had been generally treated well during the detention, and were guarded by at least 13 armed men under KGB command. The Greenpeace was ordered to leave Soviet territorial waters following an investigation by the KGB security police and the Soviet Prosecutor's Office, the Soviet news agency Tass reported. The vessel was on a two-week anti-nuclear protest voyage along the Arctic coastline. On Wednesday, Soviet Foreign Ministry spokesman Gennady Gerasimov said the Soviet Union agreed with the Greenpeace goal of ending nuclear weapons testing. But, he said, ``no matter what the mission or how noble the objectives may be, the laws of our country cannot be violated with impunity.'' According to Greenpeace officials in London, Novaya Zemlya was chosen for the protest because of fears it would again become a major test site after the closing down of the Soviet Union's main test range in the Kazakhstan republic in central Asia. The site is about 370 miles from Norway. Unconfirmed reports that nuclear tests would be resumed there prompted protests from Nordic governments.
