Bonn helped Argentina make A-Bomb — B.B.C.

Press, 21 April 1982, Page 8

Bonn helped Argentina make A-Bomb — B.B.C.

NZPA London Argentina has received from West Germany the material and knowledge needed to make nuclear arms, according to the 8.8. C. Ip Bonn a West German Government spokesman denied that his country had helped Argentina to make its own atomic bomb. 8.8. C. Television said that many features of the Argentinian and West German nuclear reactor programmes could best be understood as

preparations for' the making of atomic weapons. Argentina, which has not. signed the nuclear non-prolif-eration treaty, was able to reprocess fuel from nuclear reactors, extracting the plutonium needed to make weapons, it said. Key elements in the process . has been provied by West Germany under a secret agreement which 1 was not reported to the international and European Com- , mon Market bodies set up to

prevent the spread of nuclear arms, the 8.8. C. said. The background to the deal was a link between Argentina, where many former Nazis sought refuge after World War Two, and former Nazis in West Germany’s nuclear programme, the 8.8. C. said. But the spokesman in Bonn said West Germany was not involved in any nuclear reprocessing venture in Argentina.