FIRST BRITISH H-BOMB

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27990, 9 June 1956, Page 9

FIRST BRITISH H-BOMB

Test In Pacific Next Year

(N.Z. Press Association— Copyright) (Rec. 9 p.m.) LONDON, June 8. Britain has made plans to explode her first test hydrogen bombs in the air over a remote spot of the Pacific in the first six months of next year, Sir Anthony Eden, the Prime Minister, announced last night.

The Australian and New Zealand Governments have agreed to make available to the task force various forms of aid and ancillary support, Sir Anthony Eden said

He told the House of Commons that the explosions would take place far from any inhabited island. "The tests will be high air bursts which will not involve heavy fallout,” he added.

Christmas Island, an isolated atoll lying close to the equator midway between Australia and Mexico, is to be the base from which planes will take off to drop the H-bomb and to observe its effects.

It is likely that a Valiant jet bomber will be chosen to drop the bomb. Canberra bombers are expected to play a big part in the tests. Equipped with filters, they wiH fly through the dust cloud soon after the explosions to collect samples of the polluted air The blasts, Sir Anthony Eden said, 'would be in the “megation range”— the equivalent of a million tons of high explosive. The Prime Minister faced questions from the Labour Opposition, which is pressing for an international agreement to end H-bomb tests because of the spread of radioactivity.

He said: “All safety precautions will be taken in the light of our own knowledge and of our experience gained from the tests of other countries.” The Prime Minister added that an expert medical report on radioactive fallout would be published next week and assured questioners: “These higher bursts result in less heavy fallout and in less danger to anybody concerned.”

Action had already been taken with a view to international control and limitation of hydrogen tests, he added. British-French disarmament proposals, which included this, would be considered in a few weeks by the United Nations Disarmament Commission.

In deciding to carry out the experiments, the Government had given full weight to the anxiety existing about the indefinite continuation of nuclear tests. But, the Prime Minister emphasised, holding tests was an essential part of the process of providing Britain with nydrogen weapons. America and Russia had already held their tests.