White House aide admits N-tests

Press, 31 January 1984, Page 11

White House aide admits N-tests

NZPA-Reuter Washington A senior White House aide acknowledged yesterday that some American nuclear tests were being kept secret because of a change of policy by the Reagan Administration. The White House chief-of-staff, Mr James Baker, speaking on N.B.C. Television’s “Meet the Press” programme, said: “It is my understanding that the United States still announces all significant underground (nuclear) tests. I am not in a position to tell you why minor tests are no longer publicly announced.” Mr Baker was responding

to a "New York Times" report that an unknown number of underground nuclear explosions at the test site in the Nevada desert last year had been concealed. Failure to announce some tests ends a Government policy in effect since 1975 of publicly disclosing all such tests. The paper quoted an official of the Department of Energy, which runs the test site, as saying that the undisclosed tests had been very small. Announcing only larger tests was a matter of convenience, he said.

“There was simply no reason to announce them

all.” the unidentified official was quoted as saying. "The size of some of the tests was such that they did not even create a ripple. Nobodv could feel them off the tes't site. "It takes a lot of work to announce each of those tests. And it was information that was not germane to the general public.” The United States announced 14 tests in 1983. “The New York Times” quoted a senior official at a Federal laboratory that designs nuclear weapons as saying that there was no reason to keep any of the tests from the public.