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New Nuclear Tests

Subject:     MADNESS!!!
Sent:        7/2/97 10:40 AM
Received:    7/2/97 9:20 PM
From:        Mason Loring Bliss, mason@acheron.middleboro.ma.us
To:          ken@vvcs.com

(Forwarded from a friend of mine...  -Ken)


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U.S. defends nuclear experiments for July 2

	WASHINGTON (Reuter) - The State Department Tuesday defended
plans by the Energy Department to begin controversial new
underground nuclear weapons-related tests  July 2, saying they
would not violate a global test ban.
	    The Clinton administration said the so-called subcritical
experiments, involving no explosions, were needed to assess how
age would affect the materials in the U.S. nuclear arsenal and
predict weapons performance without actual tests.
	    ``We are confident that subcritical experiments are ...
consistent with the provisions of the Comprehensive Test Ban
Treaty,'' said State Department spokesman John Dinger.
	    Critics of the testing program are worried that Russia and
China might use the U.S. example to justify their own
underground testing, which would be difficult for outsiders to
verify for compliance with the international test ban.
	    Anti-nuclear activists tried to get a U.S. court to stop the
experiments, and 44 House lawmakers urged the government not to
go ahead with them saying they violated the spirit, if not the
letter, of the international pact signed last year.
	    ``We're setting a precedent for other countries to conduct
similar experiments,'' said Bruce Hall, nuclear disarmament
campaigner for Greenpeace.
	    ``How will they know that they're not cheating on the test
ban,'' he said. ``Unless you're really down there in the hole,
there's no way to know what's really going on.''
	    Dinger dodged questions about whether the United States
would complain if other countries planned similar nuclear
experiments, saying: ``I don't think I want to speculate about
tests that aren't taking place.''
	    ``We would hope that other countries would comply with the
Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, just as we are,'' he said.
	    The first experiment, code-named REBOUND, will take place at
the government's Nevada Test Site. The Energy Department plans
another experiment later this year and four more in 1998.

REUTER



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