Mururoa suspended

Press, 1 June 1981, Page 4

Mururoa suspended

nZPA Paris Frances new Socialistdominated administration has temporarily suspended .military nuclear tests in the ! south Pacific and halted • work on the country’s biggest ' and most controversia' 1 atomic power complex. The decisions, taken less than a week after President Francois Mitterrand took office, could lead to a turnabout of the policies of French governments for the last 25 years. ' . The decision to halt underground tests at Mururoa' : Atoll in the Tahiti area of the south Pacific was not definitive, but was made

pending a thorough study of the whole question, said Defence Ministry Officials at the week-end. A series of tests had been scheduled for Mururoa in the next few days and senior staff, officers and nuclear scientists had been due to fly out when the Defence Minister, Mr Charles Hernu, called off operations, they said. France long ignored international protests about its nuclear tests in the atmosphere and it was only in 1974, years after the programme was launched, that criticism from abroad led to a decision to hold tests underground.

The Government also forged ahead with its programme of building nuclear power stations in energystarved metropolitan France in spite of powerful movements against them by segments of public opinion. The halting of construction on the country's largest nuclear power complex at Plogoff, in Brittany, seemed in line with Socialist campaign pledges not to make France completely dependent on nuclear energy. The decision on a temporary halt to nuclear testing for military purposes followed no such campaign pledge.