Defensive nuclear policy by U.S. urged

Press, 21 January 1983, Page 7

Defensive nuclear policy by U.S. urged

NZPA Washington Dr Edward Teller, the Hungarian-born physicist who helped develop the hydrogen bomb, has urged the Reagan Administration to renounce first use of nuclear explosions on enemy territory. He has also hinted that unspecified new defences against nuclear weapons are being developed. Although he favours a policy of no first explosion on enemy territory, Dr Teller said bursts of radiation from small nuclear weapons could be useful in providing a formidable defence.

“We should use whatever is best,” he told reporters at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, at Georgetown University. As he has done on several occasions. Dr Teller urged the Administration to develop new defences against

nuclear weapons as the best way to avoid attack. “Defence is by far the best deterrent if it works." said Dr Teller, who is 74. Teller said he was retricted by “a policy of exaggerated secrecy” from discussing particle-beam weapon technology and other measures under study. However, over the last year he has said that scientific breakthroughs have made new defences possible. He has hinted that a new defensive programme is being prepared. “There are signs we are moving in the right direction,” Dr Teller said.

He criticised regulations that barred discussion of United States weapons research known to the Soviet Union.

“We pretend that there are secrets, but there are only secrets from the American people,” Dr Teller said.

The only informing of the public of research into defensive weapons could stop the nuclear freeze movement, he said. Otherwise, “our very existence will have exceedingly poor chances."

He urged development of an anti-ballistic missile defence and the use of laser beams and electromagnetic pulses as part of a strategy of defence. Dr Teller also cited the MX ground-based missile as “a wonderful opportunity to begin to develop a defensive system which could grow and become much more comprehensive later.”

A treaty with the Soviet Union permits that country and the United States to deploy anti-ballistic missile defences at only one site in each country. The United States dismantled its site in 1975.