A-Test Not Part of Series and Not Aimed at Perfecting a New Weapon, Soviets Say

The Soviet Union, announcing its resumption of nuclear tests after a 19-month moratorium, said Thursday morning’s explosion was not the first in a series and was not aimed at perfecting a new nuclear weapon.

A Defense Ministry spokesman, Maj. Gen. Gely Batenin, said, “Only a minimum number of tests will be conducted with the purpose of developing munitions for maintaining strategic parity with the United States in nuclear armaments.”

The underground blast occurred at the Semipalatinsk test range in Soviet Central Asia at 8 a.m. with a yield of less than 20 kilotons, the official Tass news agency said.

After the unilateral moratorium, which the Kremlin declared in a futile attempt to stop U.S. nuclear testing, the Soviet Union was forced to resume testing in view of continued American nuclear tests, Batenin said at a press briefing.

‘Missed Chance’

“A historic chance for ending nuclear tests once and for all has been missed at this stage,” the general said.

“The situation makes it necessary for us to do what we don’t want to do,” Batenin continued. “The button which controls our test ranges is over there in Washington in the hands of the President and Congress.”

In Washington, the State Department said the Soviets’ decision to resume testing was their own affair, the Associated Press reported.

“As we have said before, when the Soviets choose to resume nuclear testing is their decision,” department spokeswoman Phyllis Oakley said.

‘Secure, Reliable’

“The U.S. position on nuclear testing is clear,” Oakley continued. “As long as we depend on nuclear weapons for our security, we must ensure that those weapons are safe, secure, reliable and effective. This demands some level of underground nuclear testing as permitted by existing treaties.”

Western experts believe that the last previous Soviet nuclear test was conducted on July 25, 1985.

The Soviet Union began its nuclear testing moratorium on Aug. 5, 1985, and invited the United States to join it. Since then, Batenin said, there have been 26 American tests, including four that were not announced.

Although nuclear explosions continued at the Nevada test site, the moratorium was prolonged three times by Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev.

Soviet officials announced last December that the moratorium would be ended after the first U.S. nuclear test of 1987, which occurred last Feb. 4.

Despite the failure to halt U.S. testing, Gorbachev recently declared that the suspension of Soviet tests had been a success since it showed that a total test ban is possible and could be verified.

Sincerity Cited

The Soviet leader said the moratorium was a demonstration of the Kremlin’s sincerity in seeking an end to the arms race.

The United States, however, insisted that continued testing was needed to preserve a nuclear deterrent. It suggested instead an agreement to reduce the number and yield of such explosions.

In his statement, the Soviet Defense Ministry spokesman indicated Moscow’s willingness to start negotiations on a “stage-by-stage” approach toward elimination of nuclear testing.

He said the Soviet Union would welcome talks with the United States in any forum and added that it would stop such tests as soon as Washington did.

Batenin said the Soviet explosion Thursday did not involve testing of warheads but was designed to provide fundamental research information.

The testing program will check resistance of technical facilities and weapons to nuclear blasts, including those from the proposed American “Star Wars” space-based missile defense system, he added.

“In doing so, the Soviet Union has no intention of copying the nuclear program of the United States, which is aimed at developing new types of armaments, including those within the Strategic Defense Initiative framework,” the Defense Ministry spokesman said.

Batenin said that Moscow would be interested in American ratification of treaties negotiated in 1974 and 1976 to restrict the yields on underground nuclear blasts to 150 kilotons. The treaties have never been approved by the U.S. Senate, but the United States has complied with their terms.

“We are leaving the door open also on the question of the moratorium,” the general’s statement added.