MORE TESTS EXPECTED

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

MORE TESTS EXPECTED

Plan For Series Unchanged

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) . WASHINGTON, March 25. The anxiety expressed in Britain and Japan has not so far altered the United grates Plans to continue tests in the i-aciflc with weapons comparable with 9F mightier than the hydrogen device, the power of which caught even scientists by surprise. Reporting this, Reuter’s correspondent in Washington says that an Atomic Energy Commission spokesman has obliquely confirmed reports thau new hydrogen tests are coming. He referred to the commission announcement on March 1 when the hydrogen device was exploded in the Marshall Islands, saying: “This is the first of a series of tests.” The spokesman said today that there was no suggestion that the series of tests mentioned in the March announcement would not be held. The correspondent says that there was very little sympathy and some downright resentment among American officials at the outburst in British newspapers against the dangers of United States hydrogen tests in the Pacific. Some experts said that the fears being expressed fn London were based on exaggerated and unscientific assumptions.

Delay Likely Some sources have suggested that the next hydrogen test—perhaps an airborne hydrogen bomb—may be delayed for a while because of the need lor . ‘/evaluating.” The factors suggested for causing this delay are:— , \ The e ff° r * s by scientists to recalculate the power of their weapons on the basis of the March 1 explosion. (2) Unfavourable winds. (3) The radioactivity of the Bikini atoll requiring delay in setting up a further test there. One report says that the test island itself was obliterated.

(4) Tests of less powerful weapons ar ®J expected to continue at Eniwetok. The magazine “Newsweek” reports that the March 1 device was the revolutionary “three stage” weapon. It says that, it was an atomic bomb, triggered with small amounts of tritium, .ouching off lithium, which in turn set oil thermo-nuclear (hydrogen) reaction.

It also quoted the chairman of the Allied Services Committee of the House of Representatives as saying: H-weapons are getting so big that if they get much bigger we will not be able to test them.”