Protest Over French Blast Is Swift, Limited

The political fallout over France’s fifth nuclear test in Polynesia this year was swift--but limited.

The long-standing opponents of France’s decision to resume its testing lined up Thursday to denounce the Wednesday blast beneath the Mururoa coral atoll, 750 miles southeast of Tahiti.

But major allies chided France in measured tones--if at all.

Australia, New Zealand and Japan called for an immediate halt to testing and handed formal protests to French diplomats in their capitals.

“France is its own worst enemy,” said Prime Minister Jim Bolger of New Zealand. “. . . Its reputation in the Pacific is at an all-time low.”

South Korea voiced “deep disappointment,” while tiny island states near the nuclear test site accused France of arrogance.

Reaction from major allies was muted--as it has been since France ended a three-year moratorium and resumed testing in the South Pacific on Sept. 5.

State Department spokesman Glyn Davies said the United States “continues to urge all nuclear powers, including France, to refrain from further nuclear tests and to join in a global moratorium as we work to complete and sign a comprehensive test ban treaty in 1996.”

Britain’s Foreign Office said Wednesday that the test program “is a matter for the French.”

French officials have said the tests are needed to develop simulation technology on computers to make future such explosions unnecessary. France had planned eight tests but has reduced the number to six, to be completed by February.

Wednesday’s blast, equal to 30,000 tons of TNT, had the force of a 5.3-magnitude earthquake, Australian seismologists said.