[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 128 (Thursday, August 3, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H8422-H8424]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


  (Mr. FALEOMAVAEGA asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute, to revise and extend his remarks and to include 
extraneous material.)
  Mr. FALEOMAVAEGA. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the editorial board of 
the New York Times for an excellent editorial commentary this morning, 
entitled, ``Mr. Chirac's Nuclear Blunder'' and I recommend the article 
to my colleagues and the American people.
  Mr. Speaker, I will say again and again--shame on you President 
Chirac of France--shame on you President Chirac and your military 
cronies--the gall and arrogance to come marching to the South Pacific 
to explode eight nuclear bombs starting this month.
  Mr. Speaker, as I indicated yesterday to my colleagues and to all the 
citizens of our country who may be listening to this television 
broadcast, the government of France has just announced it will now 
begin its program of exploding its first nuclear bomb within 3 weeks of 
this month rather than next month.
  What has happened, Mr. Speaker, is that the President of France and 
his advisors have totally underestimated the outrage of millions of 
people around the world, and the leaders of nations from the Pacific 
Region from Asia, from Latin America, and even from Europe--all 
expressing resentment and disappointment for France's recent decision 
to resume its nuclear testing program on certain atolls in the South 
Pacific.
  Mr. Speaker, several known leaders of governments around the world 
have asked their constituencies to boycott all French made goods and 
products in their countries--in other words, don't buy French wine, 
French perfumes and cosmetics, French foods, French clothing, French 
shoes--French everything and anything that is manufactured or produced 
in France. Mr. Speaker, I wish I did not have to make this appeal to 
the American people not to purchase French goods and products, but how 
else is the French government going to take responsibility for its 
announced policy to resume nuclear testings in the middle of the 
Pacific Ocean?
  It seems to me, Mr. Speaker, that the President of France can better 
utilize the 1 billion dollars he plans to spend for these eight nuclear 
bomb explosions--to resolve the serious problem of unemployment French 
citizens are now confronted with--a 12-percent unemployment rate right 
now in France.

[[Page H 8423]]

  Mr. Speaker, if President Chirac really wants to prove how much of a 
world class leader that he claims to be--be a real man by showing real 
compassion and sensitivity to the hazards and dangers of nuclear bomb 
explosions--don't explode any more nuclear bombs in French Polynesia.
                [From the New York Times, July 30, 1995]

      Asian Nations Putting Pressure on France Over Nuclear Tests

                           (By Philip Shenon)

       Bangkok, Thailand, July 29.--With France only weeks away 
     from returning nuclear tests in the Pacific, governments 
     across Asia and the south Pacific are demanding that the 
     French reconsider, and there are warnings of an economic 
     boycott that could damage the French economy.
       The most potent threat may come from Japan, where the 
     Government has bitterly criticized the decision by President 
     Jacques Chirac to resume nuclear testing in French Polynesia 
     this fall after a three-year moratorium. Mr. Chirac says his 
     decision is irrevocable.
       Last week 47 Japanese lawmakers, many of them prominent 
     members of parties in the coalition Government, called for a 
     boycott of French luxury goods, a threat that carries weight 
     given the affection of millions of Japanese consumers for 
     brand-name French fashion, perfumes and liquor.
       The Japanese market accounts for as much as half of the 
     profits for some French makers of luxury goods, and shares of 
     several of those companies have been tumbling in the French 
     stock markets as a result of the protests in Japan.
       ``Nations that possess nuclear weapons must show their 
     wisdom and set an example to countries that do not have 
     nuclear weapons,'' the Japanese Science and Technology 
     Minister, Makiko Tanaka, said in a letter to Mr. Chirac. 
     Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama has accused France of 
     ``betraying'' nonnuclear countries with the resumption of 
     nuclear tests.
       Mr. Chirac announced in June, shortly after his election, 
     that France would carry out eight underground explosions in 
     two tiny Polynesian atolls--Mururoa and Fangatauta--from 
     September through May. After that, he has promised, France 
     will sign the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty and end 
     nuclear testing forever.
       The French Government has said it needs to carry out the 
     tests to check the reliability and safety of its existing 
     nuclear arsenal. But that has not satisfied foreign leaders 
     and environmental campaigners who say computer simulations 
     would offer much the same information.
       There is debate among scientists about the environmental 
     impact of the tests, with French geologists insisting that 
     none of the radiation from the test sites can leak from the 
     hard basalt bedrock of the atolls. Scientists elsewhere are 
     not so sure, concerned that radiation could reach the ocean 
     through a porous layer of limestone.
       The decision to resume the tests has been criticized by the 
     United States, Britain and Russia--nuclear powers that have 
     all halted testing.
       Last week, the lower house of the Russian Parliament 
     condemned the French tests, describing as ``dangerous such 
     testing in the fragile systems of coral reefs.'' Only China, 
     which has continued to conduct underground nuclear 
     experiments at Lop Nor in the western province of Xianjiang, 
     has continued to test.
       Although they can threaten nothing like the economic wallop 
     of a Japanese boycott, the Governments of Australia and New 
     Zealand have offered far stronger words against the French.
       ``An arrogant action of a European colonial power,'' Prime 
     Minister Jim Bolger of New Zealand has said of the French 
     tests. The Australian Prime Minister, Paul Keating, described 
     the tests as ``deplorable.''
       ``We are determined to maintain the pressure on France to 
     modify its program to desist from testing weapons and also to 
     encourage further international focus on France,'' Mr. 
     Keating said last week in Melbourne after meeting with Mr. 
     Bolger.
                                                                    ____

                [From the Washington Post, Aug. 2, 1995]

                France Moves Up Pacific A-Test Schedule

                         (By William Drozdiak)

       Paris, Aug. 1.--France is accelerating the timetable for a 
     series of nuclear tests in the South Pacific to avert a 
     confrontation with protest groups and to defuse a diplomatic 
     crisis that is damaging the country's image as well as its 
     pocketbook, French officials said today.
       President Jacques Chirac announced two months ago that 
     France would conduct eight nuclear explosions at the Mururoa 
     coral atoll from September through May before signing a 
     comprehensive test-ban treaty. But officials said the 
     schedule will be moved up so the tests can begin later this 
     month and conclude more quickly. Four of the eight nuclear 
     devices are now ready, sources said.
       By triggering the first blast this month, French officials 
     hope to avoid a showdown with a ``peace flotilla'' organized 
     by Greenpeace and other ecology groups. The Greenpeace ship 
     Rainbow Warrior II is now close to Fiji, but other boats that 
     will make up the protest fleet are still gathering in New 
     Zealand and are at least four weeks' sailing time from the 
     test site.
       France's planned speed-up reflects a growing fear in the 
     government that the hostile reaction provoked by Chirac's 
     decision to conduct tests could spin out of control unless 
     Paris moves quickly to muffle the global outrage.
       French officials anticipated a brief spasm of protests but 
     figured the promise to sign the treaty and close down the 
     test site would appease world opinion. Instead, the protests 
     have gathered strength and threaten to seriously harm sales 
     of French exports worldwide.
       Australia and New Zealand have declared they will suspend 
     all defense cooperation with France unless the tests are 
     abandoned. Antinuclear groups in Japan and Germany--two of 
     France's biggest markets for its consumer products--have been 
     accumulating support for a campaign to boycott French wines, 
     clothing and other luxury goods.
       In the latest twist to the nuclear controversy, Australia 
     barred a French company from bidding on a $740 million 
     contract to supply jet fighters because of the planned tests. 
     In response, France recalled its ambassador from Canberra. 
     The Foreign Ministry said today that the ambassador was 
     withdrawn to demonstrate outrage at the way Australia has 
     waged its protests. The ministry cited several hostile acts, 
     including blocking the delivery of mail and diplomatic bags, 
     allowing protesters to obstruct access to the French Embassy 
     and delaying French ships in Australian ports.
       The loss of the potential contract for up to 40 light jet 
     fighters was the heaviest price Paris has paid since arousing 
     the fury of Asian and Pacific nations with its decisions to 
     resume tests after a three-year moratorium.
       France is one of the world's leading arms exporters and has 
     targeted Asia as one of the most important future markets for 
     such big-ticket exports as naval frigates and fighter planes. 
     French officials said their arms industry is in fierce 
     competition with the United States and needs to capture a 
     good chunk of Asian markets to cut losses in the defense 
     sector.
       ``Nuclear tests should not be mixed up with the question of 
     arms industry contracts,'' Defense Minister Charles Million 
     said, ``I want the French people and foreigners to understand 
     this is a sovereign act which will enable France to remain a 
     great power and also permit it to join a comprehensive test 
     ban treaty from 1996 while retaining a credible and reliable 
     deterrent force.''
       Millon said he was surprised that Australia had not 
     protested Chinese nuclear tests, which although conducted on 
     China's mainland are closer to Australia than is the site of 
     the French tests. He also repeated Chirac's invitation to any 
     scientist to visit the Mururoa atoll once the tests have 
     taken place to verify that no wildlife has been affected.
       France says that no radioactivity can escape because the 
     nuclear blast occurs 1,800 to 3,000 feet underground and the 
     heat from the blast vitrifies the volcanic rock around the 
     device. But documents released by France's Atomic Energy 
     Commission and published today in the newspaper Le Monde 
     showed that at least three of more than 200 French nuclear 
     tests since 1960 led to some contamination at the Mururoa 
     atoll.
                                                                    ____

                [From the New York Times, Aug. 3, 1995]

                      Mr. Chirac's Nuclear Blunder

       France's new President, Jacques Chirac, seems determined to 
     squander the good will that greeted his arrival in office. 
     Heedless of the damage he is inflicting on French interests 
     and the world's hopes for reining in nuclear weapons, he 
     persists in his plan to resume underground nuclear tests in 
     the South Pacific next month.
       Paris says the tests are needed to insure the reliability 
     of France's nuclear weapons stockpile before a comprehensive 
     test-ban treaty is negotiated next year. That is a specious 
     argument. Reliability can be adequately assured by computer 
     simulations. More fundamentally, breaching the de facto test 
     ban now observed by all nuclear powers except China 
     undermines French nuclear security.
       Charles de Gaulle developed France's nuclear arsenal as a 
     cold-war deterrent and a symbol of French independence from 
     the American nuclear umbrella. With the end of the cold war, 
     the arsenal no longer has any obvious military use. France's 
     nuclear security today depends not on deterring Soviet attack 
     but on preventing potential nuclear powers like Iraq and Iran 
     from developing weapons on their own.
       Preventing the spread of nuclear weapons depends in turn on 
     global efforts against proliferation. Earlier this year, 
     France joined the other nuclear nations in lobbying for an 
     indefinite extension of the Nuclear Nonproliferation treaty. 
     They persuaded non-nuclear countries to go along by pledging 
     to negotiate a formal ban on nuclear testing by next year. 
     France's decision to test this year does not violate the 
     letter of that pledge. But it surely violates its spirit.
       Critics of the French tests also worry about the risk, 
     however small, of environmental catastrophe. France has 
     already exploded more than 100 nuclear weapons at its Mururoa 
     Atoll test site. The coral that makes up the atoll sits atop 
     the crater of a submerged volcano. The nuclear explosions 
     take place within a shaft drilled into the underlying 
     volcanic rock. Each blast can cause limited fracturing of 
     nearby rock.

[[Page H 8424]]

       As long as the surrounding mass of the volcano remains 
     intact, the radioactive byproducts remain safely contained. 
     But some scientists worry that the combined effects of 
     further testing and natural erosion could cause a slow leak 
     of radioactive material or an abrupt falling away of the 
     volcanic wall, releasing massive radioactive waste.
       These two concerns--about proliferation and the 
     environment--have provoked strenuous international 
     opposition. Polls also show that a majority of people in 
     France itself oppose the tests.
       The strongest reaction so far has come from Australia, 
     which this week barred a French aerospace concern from 
     bidding on a $547 million jet fighter contract. The 
     government in one Australian state has said that it will no 
     longer entertain French bids on a $9 billion water 
     privatization project. Other regional governments in 
     Australia are also contemplating costly reprisals.
       Mr. Chirac's response has been to call France's Ambassador 
     home ``for consultations.'' That is a standard form of 
     diplomatic protest. But in this case, real consultations--not 
     only with Australia but with other critics--would be a far 
     better idea. Mr. Chirac has badly underestimated the 
     opposition to testing. He has also reacted with more 
     stubbornness than statesmanship to his critics. He still has 
     time to extricate himself and France from a costly and 
     dangerous mistake. 
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