Nuclear Fleet Sails
(N.Z.P. A.-Reuter—Copyright) PARIS, March 20. A French Navy task force is on its way to the Pacific for France’s first hydrogen bomb test this season, a spokesman for the Armed Forces Ministry said today. The task force, comprising the aircraft carrier Clemenceau and three escort vessels, sailed from the Mediterranean naval base of Toulon on March 12. It is heading for the nuclear test centre at Mururoa and Gangatofa atolls, south-east of Tahiti. Half-a-dozen atom bomb tests are scheduled, culminating with the explosion of an H-bomb. No dates were given for the proposed tests, but atmospheric conditions in the South Pacific test area are expected to be suitable for nuclear tests from May onwards. France carried out five nuclear tests in the Pacific from July 2 to October 4, 1966, and another three from June 5 to July 2 last year. The first nuclear tests this season will include a 500kiloton “doped” bomb destined for the first generation of Polaris-type missiles for the French nuclear submarines now being built at Cherbourg.
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Bibliographic details
Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31635, 22 March 1968, Page 1
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174Nuclear Fleet Sails Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31635, 22 March 1968, Page 1
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