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INDIA TALKS MORATORIUM AS QUESTIONS MOUNT



From: whatsnew@aps.org (What's New)
Subject: What's New for May 22, 1998

WHAT'S NEW Robert L. Park Friday, 22 May 98 Washington, DC

1. NUCLEAR VIAGRA: INDIA TALKS MORATORIUM AS QUESTIONS MOUNT. =

Still swaggering after its performance, India said yesterday that
it's now ready to discuss a moratorium with the major powers --
as an equal of course. But weapons experts are increasingly
skeptical about India's claims, as WN first reported last week
(WN 15 May 98). There is no doubt that there was a nuclear blast
on the 11th, but as one arms control wag put it "Prime Minister
Vajpayee's device is 43 kilotons shorter than he wants you to
think it is." India described the only explosion that could be
detected as "thermonuclear," but given the yield, it is more
likely that it was a hydrogen-boosted fission bomb, since small
thermonuclear devices require great sophistication. The claim
that three devices were detonated simultaneously makes no sense
from a testing standpoint. There is speculation that the two
"sub-kiloton" tests on the 13th were either duds or imaginary.
Experts recall that India also exaggerated its 1974 test. =

=