[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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