French nuclear explosion soon

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33942, 8 September 1975, Page 1

French nuclear explosion soon

(N.Z.P. A.-Reuter—Copyright)

PAPEETE (Tahiti). September 7. Another French underground nuclear test series in the Pacific seems imminent.

A group of 60 journalists yesterday toured the test site on Fangataufa Atoll, 1200 kilometres south of Tahiti. Work at the site is well advanced. The test superintendent (Mr Claude Aycoberry) would not

say when the next test would

take place, nor how many devices would be set off in the series. He told journalists that French scientists were now working on miniaturising I nuclear devices. j Mr Aycoberry said that an underground test cost about SNZ 16m,. compared with less than one-quarter of that amount for a test in the atmosphere. The next underground test will be the second in the present series. He said that the third and

subsequent tests would take place on Mururoa Atoll. France’s unyielding determination to pursue its nuclear test programme despite international opposition iwas emphasised in Papeete today by a French Defence Ministry spokesman. Mr Pierre Saulierre. The French Pacific nuclear programme would continue as long as it was needed, he said in an interview.

Speaking with emotion, he said: “We remember strongly our defeat of the 1940 s by Germany.”

French facilities at Muru-ii roa and Hao, about 500 miles( south-east of Papeete, indicate the permanence of the I French nuclear presence. ji There is no separate Poly- : nesian population at Mururoa. 1 but 1600 Polynesians live onj! Hao in a town next to the;' I French military base. i Mr Saulierre claimed that i New Zealand’s protests were i not a factor in the decision to switch to underground ’ tests. < Other officials, however, I indicated that these protests

(might have been a factor. I French scientists said that (underground tests should not be held in Europe because (there was always a danger something could go wrong. | 1 The scientists said that (they did not believe anything ■ would go wrong, but if it did. there was no population of; any size near the Pacific test; sites.

Radiation would take 1500! years to seep completely out of the underground test holes. By that time it would be harmless, they said.