China Aims For H-Bomb

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30847, 4 September 1965, Page 15

China Aims For H-Bomb

(N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright) LONDON, Sept. 3. It seemed likely that China had not only found a cheaper way of producing uranium-235 but one which used less power, reports a special correspondent of the “Financial Times.” The corespondent said that recent visitors to China had been told by Mr Mao Tsetung that the third and fourth nuclear test explosions would soon take place. The first was carried out last October and the second in May. The fact that the Chinese nuclear programme used uranium-235, and not the cheaper and easier-to-produce plutonium, indicated that Peking had decided from the start to acquire the capacity to produce not merely atom bombs, for which the plutonium was adequate, but Hbombs, for which uranium--235 was better.

The two explosions in the desert had convinced Western experts that China must be producing her own uranium-235 at the gaseous diffusion plant which Russian experts were believed to have helped build at Lanchow, the new industrial centre in west China. High Cost

What surprised the Western observers was Peking's willingness to incur the high cost of producing uranium--235. Another puzzle was the amount of energy required by a gaseous diffusion plant. The Chinese had the skilled men to devise a way of producing cheap uranium--235 with less power. China would probably, at her present rate of progress, have an H-bomb by 1970 and the ability to deliver it by long-range missiles by about 1975, said the “Financial Times.” It was largely a matter of money. Squabbles With Russia

It was said in Peking's foreign community that one of the many technical squabbles between Russian and Chinese specialists concerned the lead sheathing for

one of the atomic reactors. The Soviet view was that the Chinese were providing too thin a sheath, which would certainly save money but would give protection against radiation only for about five years.

Observers who preferred : cautiously to wait until each i development was proved I while not denying the tech- : nical capacity of the Chinese : to succeed in their nuclear ; ambitions, were probably wise, said the correspondent.