Fifth Test 'Very Soon’

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31232, 2 December 1966, Page 13

Fifth Test ' Very Soon’

(N.Z P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) WASHINGTON, December 1. China’s fifth nuclear test is believed imminent, and might be aimed at developing a hydrogen bomb, American experts said yesterday.

Preparations for the latest detonation at the Lop Nor testing ground in Sinkiang province were reported to be virtually complete. The State Department said that it had reason to believe the test would take place soon, and officials suggested yesterday that it could be expected in a matter of days. The last Chinese test, in

which a nuclear warhead was carried about 400 miles by a guided missile before detonation, took place on October 26.

China’s previous four tests were conducted at intervals ranging from five months to one year.

The fact that the fifth was believed due only a few weeks after the fourth was seen as an acceleration of Peking’s development schedule and confirmation of its rapid progress in the nuclear field.

It was also said to be the most conclusive evidence so far that China was in a position to produce substantial quantities of fissionable material for nuclear weapons. The third test, conducted in May, involved a device con taining thermo-nuclear material, although the Chinese

did not claim that they had detonated a hydrogen bomb. The most popular theory was that the imminent detonation would represent definite progress in China’s attempt to develop a thermonuclear device. But there were other lines of speculation about the present phase of Peking’s nuclear programme. One was that the test might involve the dropping of a nuclear warhead from a plane instead of firing one from a tower or atop a missile, as in the past.

Another suggested that China might be moving into a defensive stage by conducting a highly instrumented blast from a stationary point to compile data on the effects of a nuclear weapon on buildings and the human body.