Another French N-test

Press, 26 March 1980, Page 1

Another French N-test

PA Wellington France has exploded another nuclear device at Mururoa Atoll in the South Pacific. The blast was twice the size of the one which razed Hiroshima in 1945. "It had a yield of 50 kilotons and was quite moderately large,” said the superintendent of the seismological observatory in Wellington, Dr Warwick Smith. The blast occurred at

7.37 a.m, (N.Z. time) on Monday. Dr Smith said that the explosion had been measured "quite strongly” in Rarotonga, but only weakly in Wellington. Two other smaller French tests had been recorded on February 23 and March 3, with yields of two and six kilotons. Dr B. J, O’Brien, director of the D.S.I.R.’s Institute of Nuclear Sciences, said that it was impossible to tell whether the latest explosion repre-

sented the culmination of a test phase or the beginning of one. The French. Defence Minister (Mr Yvon Bourges) on Monday dismissed reports that France was planning another nuclear test at Mururoa Atoll. Mr Bourges made the denial after he arrived in Tahiti last Thursday for a three-day visit. Before leaving the island on Monday for Mururoa,

1250 km to the south-east, Mr Bourges emphasised that every possible safety precaution was taken by France before nuclear tests. He would not say whether any kind of test would occur during his visit. A spokesman for the French Embassy in Wellington was non-committal yesterday about the test. “I can neither confirm nor deny it,” he said. “That is our Government’s policy.”