The World - News from Feb. 11, 1987

A French scientist said his nation plans soon to abandon nuclear testing at Mururoa Atoll in the South Pacific, but New Zealand Prime Minister David Lange questioned the assertion. Biophysicist Abraham Behar told an international convention of physicians in Wellington, New Zealand, that France is looking for another site to conduct its nuclear tests because of the geologic state of the atoll, 2,800 miles northeast of Wellington. Lange, speaking at a news conference, said, “This is speculative and seems to fly in the face of French diplomacy of late in the Pacific.” New Zealand opposes France’s use of the atoll for nuclear testing.