French Bombs PREPARATIONS FOR MORE

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31768, 27 August 1968, Page 1

French Bombs PREPARATIONS FOR MORE

CN.Z. Press Association —Copyright. l PAPEETE (Tahiti), August 26.

French scientists yesterday began preparations to explode at least two more hydrogen bombs despite a storm of protests brought on by their first H-bomb blast on Saturday.

The French Scientific Minister, Mr Robert" Galley, said in Papeete yesterday that the radioactive cloud from the first bomb had not crossed any inhabited atoll in the area.

“The device was suspended from a balloon at high altitude, and so the radioactive cloud went straight up into the stratosphere, following the expected north-north-east route. It therefore did not cross any inhabited atoll,” the Minister said on his return from the testing area. The Minister said that the testing of the thermonuclear device, code-named “Canopus,” had been a great success.

Mr Galley said the delay in the testing, originally scheduled for a week ago, was caused by the need to wait for absolutely right conditions..

Mr Galley would not elaborate on the French nuclear programme for the near future, but he said: “It is clear that one experiment will not tell us all we need to know about the thermonuclear phenomenon, and there is no reason why our programme should stop here.”