The World - News from March 14, 1989

Norway has stopped exports of heavy water, which can be used in the production of nuclear bombs, after a series of international scandals that have embarrassed the government. A Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said a new law will allow only tiny amounts of heavy water to leave the country, and then only for research. Oslo has been trying to find out what happened to 15 tons of the water, formally known as deuterium oxide, that it says was illegally rerouted from Switzerland to India in 1983. There has also been a probe into a 1986 sale of 12.5 tons to Romania, and a long-running dispute with Israel over 20 tons of heavy water sold to that country in 1959 has not yet been resolved.