Soviet Officials Arrive to Tour Laser Facility

A high-level delegation of U.S. and Soviet officials arrived in Orange County on Friday, stopping briefly before touring an American “Star Wars” facility to hold an impromptu news conference dominated by expressions of grief over the death of Soviet physicist Andrei Sakharov.

“Our voyage here today is both a happy one and a sad one,” said Ambassador David J. Smith, chief U.S. negotiator to defense and space talks in Geneva. Happy, he explained, because the delegation is taking part in the first visit by a Soviet official to a Strategic Defense Initiative project, and sad because of Sakharov’s death Thursday in Moscow.

Smith said American officials had expressed condolences to their Soviet counterparts for the death of Sakharov, 68, a renowned physicist, the father of the Soviet hydrogen bomb and a Nobel Prize-winning human rights leader whom Smith described as “a very great man, a hero to the Soviet people and to the American people.”

The 10-man Soviet delegation, led by Ambassador Yuri Nazarkin, head of the Soviet negotiating team in Geneva, arrived at the Marine Corps Air Station in El Toro crisply at 1:30 p.m. Friday, pulling up in a blue and white military jet and pausing briefly to greet reporters.

Soviet officials joined their American counterparts in lamenting Sakharov’s death and in endorsing the importance of the tour.

Vasili Glukhikh, a Soviet expert in particle accelerator technology, said physicists such as Sakharov have helped teach their governments that “it is no longer possible to fight” and have paved the way for cooperative exchanges such as this weekend’s in Orange County.

“This is an overwhelming phenomenon,” he added, grinning broadly.

Soviet delegation leader Nazarkin called Sakharov “a great scientist” and “an outstanding politician.”

The group will visit the Capistrano Test Site near San Clemente today, the first time Soviets have ever been allowed to examine an American Strategic Defense Initiative project. TRW Inc. is developing and testing the “Alpha,” a high-energy chemical laser, at the Capistrano Test Site.

According to officials at Friday’s press conference, the visit is intended to demonstrate that reciprocal inspections of research facilities can be arranged as part of a treaty to control the development of space-based defensive systems.

Smith, who called the visit a “modest but potentially important step” in U.S.-Soviet arms talks, added that there were “no strings attached.” American officials have not demanded a look at a comparable Soviet installation in return for this tour, he explained, though the Soviets have allowed American congressmen and others to view a laser facility near Moscow.

Nazarkin spoke briefly to reporters assembled on the airfield at the Marine Corps Air Station, but declined to comment on specifics of the trip, saying it was “premature.”

“I look forward to seeing them (the Capistrano Test Site and the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico) in the context of our bilateral negotiations,” Nazarkin said.

Although the Soviets will spend the day today poking around the “Alpha” laser, they will not get to see it actually work, said Marine Lt. Col. Alan R. Freitag. The laser, which is still in a developmental testing program, is designed to work in space and as a result is housed in a complex vacuum chamber, which the Soviets will also be allowed to inspect.

None of the equipment is classified, and nothing has been declassified for the visit, Freitag said, but reporters and members of the public may not participate. Details of the visit are also being closely guarded, and officials would say only that the Soviets would be in “the Southern California area” through Sunday.

“We assured the Soviets that we would not use this to showcase SDI technology or to make a media event out of it,” Freitag said. “This visit is an extension of the Geneva talks, which are private and confidential, so this visit is private and confidential.”