First Nuclear Test
p. 21 · Read in the full issue
At Mururoa
France exploded its first atomic device at AAururoa Atoll in the Tuamotu Archipelago of French Poly nesia on July 3—38 months after it announced plans to build a nuclear testing site in the South Pacific.
Predictably, protests against the test were made by many countries, including the United States, Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand, Italy, Japan, Denmark, Chile, Peru and South Korea. French officials in Paris described the protests as "irrita tingly moralising".
US warships and aircraft were reported near or in the testing area before and immediately after the explosion. An unidentified submarine was also reported in the area.
An official French communique said the test had been with an "experimental plutonium fission device, the force of which was within the so-called 'tactical range'."
Paris reports say that General de Gaulle will visit the Pacific to observe further tests later this year.