DUST CLOUDS FROM TESTS

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27309, 27 March 1954, Page 7

DUST CLOUDS FROM TESTS

N.Z. Believed To Have Consulted Britain

(From Our Own Reporter) ■ WELLINGTON, March 26. Contamination of' Japanese fishing vessels by radioactive dust settling after the recent American atomic tests off the Marshall Islands is believed to have prompted the New Zealand Government to consult the British Government on the possibility of taking action to watch the effect of future atomic tests in the Pacific. American Embassy officials in Wellington would not comment on the suggestion that the two Governments were cohcerned over the dangerous effect of tests. Experts in New Zealand claim that there is little risk of winds or ocean currents contaminated by an atomic weapon exploded off the Marshall Islands reaching New Zealand or the Fiji Islands, but the installation of some kind of counters in an island north of New Zealand would result in detecting the path of any future atomic radiation. As far as has been ascertained, radioactive clouds and dust have not reached New Zealand after any of the previous atomic tests conducted by the United States, although some New Zealand scientists say that results of the British tests at the Montebello Islands were detected here. In the case of detonations north of New Zealand, the prevailing winds would tend to sweep radioactive clouds and dust north towards Japan, rather than south over the Equator into New Zealand waters.