[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 156 (Tuesday, October 10, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H9767]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     UNITED STATES ASSISTING FRENCH NUCLEAR TESTING IN THE PACIFIC?

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from American Samoa [Mr. Faleomavaega] is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. FALEOMAVAEGA. Mr. Speaker, on Sunday, October 1, 1995, France 
detonated a second nuclear bomb in the South Pacific, thumbing its nose 
at over 150 nations that have called for France to stop its reckless 
and irresponsible behavior.
  I find it deplorable that France, which exploded a 110 kiloton blast, 
seven times more destructive than the bomb that devastated Hiroshima, 
is again showing the world that, in the name of national interest, it 
is more than willing to reopen the global arms race while encouraging 
nuclear proliferation.
  Mr. Speaker, I also find it deplorable that while the United States 
has gone on record as opposing France's resumption of nuclear testing 
and called for its end, our Government may in fact be in complicity 
with French President Chirac's decision to explode eight more nuclear 
bombs in the South Pacific.
  On this subject, I would recommend to our colleagues and the public 
an excellent article in the New York Times, September 30, 1995, by 
Daniel Plesch and Simon Whitby of the British-American Security 
Information Council.
  Mr. Plesch and Whitby note the near universal condemnation of 
France's resurrection of the nuclear nightmare in the South Pacific, 
and that despite the outcry, the United States continues to support the 
tests by allowing France to fly its DC-8 supply planes across the 
United States on their way to the Pacific. According to the State 
Department, these planes, which are likely carrying nuclear material, 
are permitted to stop over on the west coast.
  They further state that, ``the Clinton administration should prohibit 
these overflights. This ban might not stop the nuclear tests, but it 
would slow France's ability to supply and thus operate its Mururoa test 
site.
  Mr. Speaker, this Mururoa atoll where France has exploded nuclear 
bombs for the past 30 years, France has now exploded over 168 nuclear 
bombs on this atoll. This atoll now has probably 10 Chernobyls 
contained on this Pacific atoll, which is a volcanic formation. If that 
atoll ever leaks out, I do not know what is going to happen to the 
200,000 Polynesian Tahitians living on these islands, let alone the 28 
million people who live in the Pacific.
  What arrogance, Mr. Speaker, that France has done this to the people 
of the Pacific region and might even be to the Americans living in the 
State of Hawaii on the Pacific coast States.
  Mr. Speaker, I find it atrocious and the height of hypocrisy if this 
and other reports in the press are true that our Nation is acting in 
complicity with France's testing in the Pacific. Permitting French 
overflights of the United States with aircraft carrying nuclear 
materials or bomb components bound for France's South Pacific test 
site clearly undercuts the administration's policy against French 
testing.

  Mr. Speaker--whether the administration is placing the American 
public at risk with these French nuclear overflights or is covertly 
supporting France's nuclear testing in the Pacific, I think they owe 
Members in Congress some answers regarding the extent and detail of 
U.S. nuclear collaboration with the Government of France. This matter 
is rife with hypocrisy and should not be kept hidden and secret from 
the American people.
  Moreover, Mr. Speaker, if these French planes are carrying plutonium 
or other fissile materials, these overflights would be in clear 
violation of U.S. law without certification clearances from the Nuclear 
Regulatory Commission and the Department of Energy. For the State 
Department to merely declare that they don't know what's on board these 
flights is a travesty.
  Mr. Speaker, if the Clinton administration is sincere about nuclear 
disarmament and opposition to French nuclear testing, it should 
immediately suspend all nuclear cooperation with France until it acts 
responsibly by stopping their tests in the Pacific.
  The article follows:

                  [The New York Times, Sept. 30, 1995]

                       France's Bomb, Our Problem

                  (By Daniel Plesch and Simon Whitby)

       Washington.--The world has looked on in outrage as France 
     has brought the nuclear nightmare back to the South Pacific. 
     To date, 150 countries have criticized the underground 
     weapons tests at the Mururoa Atoll in French Polynesia that 
     resumed early this month after three years and that are to 
     continue into 1996. Despite the outcry, the United States 
     continues to support the tests by allowing France to fly its 
     DC-8 supply planes across the United States on their way to 
     the Pacific. According to the State Department, these planes, 
     which are likely carrying nuclear material, are permitted to 
     stop over on the West Coast.
       The Clinton Administration should prohibit these 
     overflights. This ban might not stop the nuclear tests, but 
     it would slow France's ability to supply and thus operate its 
     Mururoa test site.
       State Department officials acknowledge that the French are 
     ferrying military equipment, but they will neither confirm 
     nor deny reports that the planes are carrying nuclear 
     materials.
       After the international opposition to the Pacific tests 
     spread last summer, France reversed its long-held position at 
     talks in Geneva on a comprehensive treaty that would ban all 
     nuclear weapons tests. It no longer argues for a loophole 
     that would allow the testing of nuclear weapons with under 
     500 tons of explosive power.
       But France also said it will not agree to a full test ban 
     until after its tests in the Pacific are completed in 1996.
       The overflights are only one example of the complex 
     relationship between France and the United States on nuclear 
     weapons. Relations have always been highly secret and have 
     never been subject to Congressional scrutiny.
       During World War II, France supplied the Manhattan 
     Project--the development of the atomic bomb--with heavy water 
     that it had taken out of the country ahead of the advancing 
     Nazis.
       In the early 1970's, France helped the United States get 
     around provisions of the Partial Test Ban Treaty of 1963. 
     President John F. Kennedy had committed to a ban on above-
     ground nuclear tests. France, however, had not made such a 
     pledge and continued to explode bombs above Mururoa until 
     1974. American planes were allowed to fly near the blasts to 
     collect data.
       In return for this privilege and for France's practical 
     support for NATO, even though it had withdrawn from the 
     alliance's military command, the United States has given 
     France considerable help in building its nuclear forces.
       Experts who are familiar with the arrangement say that this 
     has included assistance for France's work on the neutron 
     bomb, nuclear-warhead components, missile guidance systems 
     and stealth technology for cruise missiles. Today, the United 
     States is reported to be helping France with computer tests 
     of its nuclear stockpile.
       President Jacques Chirac has said that these tests are 
     needed to determine if the weapons will work properly. But 
     French officials have acknowledged that the main reason is to 
     gather the data needed to develop new warheads. But they do 
     not acknowledge that the United States is helping them.
       France maintains that it has never relied on foreign 
     support to build its nuclear weapons and that it never will. 
     The secrecy around the program has helped France preserve its 
     image as an independent nuclear state--a keystone of its 
     foreign policy.
       To undermine this not-so-grand illusion and to stress its 
     opposition to French tests in the Pacific, Congress should 
     insist that the Clinton Administration disclose the details 
     of the American nuclear collaboration with France.

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