Soviets to resume N-testing

Press, 23 February 1987, Page 10

Soviets to resume N-testing

NZPA-AP Moscow The Soviet Union plans to resume nuclear tests within days and yesterday ordered United States scientists at the main Soviet test site to shut off their monitoring equipment, said a member of the American group. . . The exact time of the test is not known but the monitors were told to keep their equipment

turned off for . at least three days. The Soviets declared a unilateral moratorium on nuclear testing in August, 1985, and extended it four times before it expired on January 1. The Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, said last month that the Soviets would continue to refrain from testing if the United States did the

same. After an American test on February 2, Mr Gorbachev said he was no longer bound by the moratorium. The United States group monitoring the Soviet test site in northern Kazakhstan are sponsored by the private, Washington-based Natural Resources Defence Council, which has been monitoring the site under a 198® agreement with the Soviet Academy

of Sciences. The scientists sought to Show that a nuclear test ban can be verified. Under the agreement, American ana Soviet scientists installed American-made seismic equipment at three spots near the testing ground, about 2735 km south-east of Moscow. One station is staffed by Americans, the other two by Soviets.