The World - News from Nov. 2, 1988

A Norwegian official announced that 15 metric tons of its heavy water, which can be used for making atomic bombs, was sold to a West German firm but illegally rerouted to India. “I can confirm that 15 (metric) tons of heavy water . . . ended up in Bombay,” assistant state prosecutor Tor Aksel Busch told reporters. “But we do not know what the water was used for,” he added. The Duesseldorf-based Rohstoff-Einfuh corporation purchased the water from the Norwegian firm Norsk Hydro A/S. International regulations forbid the shipment of more than one metric ton of heavy water to India, which has refused to sign an international treaty aimed at halting the spread of nuclear weapons.