U.S. test triggers protests

Press, 24 April 1986, Page 6

U.S. test triggers protests

NZPA-Reuter Washington The United States has exploded its third underground nuclear device this year, triggering widespread protests from Moscow to the Congress. Political observers said the test yesterday in the Nevada desert demonstrated the Reagan administration’s determination to proceed with testing despite such protests. The official Soviet news agency, Tass, condemned the test, as did private groups in the United States. The observers said an amendment was likely to be introduced in the House of Representatives ending funds for future tests.

A brief Department of Energy announcement said the “weapons-re-lated” explosion yielded between 20 and 150 kilotonnes, or the equivalent of 20,000 to 150,000 tonnes of TNT. A United States invitation to Moscow to send observers to the test to study a new American method of measuring the power of underground nuclear explosions was rejected by the Soviet leader, Mr Mikhail Gorbachev. The method is called Cortex. Tass said the explosion had dashed a unique chance to make a real beginning to the disarmament process and said the tests would “complicate still further the tense situation in the world arena.”

About 30 demonstrators protested against the explosion outside the perimeter of the test range. Three were arrested. The blast was the tenth announced by the United States since the Soviet Union declare pause on tests on July 29. Moscow renounced its ban after the last American test on April 19 but the Soviet Foreign Minister, Mr Eduard Shevardnadze, told a Kremlin meeting yesterday that Moscow was in no hurry to resume testing. The Reagan Administration says testing is vital for the United States to maintain the reliability and credibility of its nuclear deterrent. Officials also say it is needed, for experiments

for exotic new weapons for “star wars.” “The New York Times” yesterday quoted scientists at the Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore nuclear weapons laboratories as saying the number of American nuclear explosions required to perfect new types of weapons was rising dramatically. Scientists working on more complex nuclear arms could require between 100 and 200 explosions per design compared with about six in the past, it said. X-ray lasers powered by hydrogen bombs are seen as a key to developing Mr Reagan’s “star wars” system, formally called the strategic defence initiative officials say.