France Conducts 5th Nuclear Test in South Pacific

France detonated a nuclear blast in the South Pacific on Wednesday, the fifth in a series of tests on two atolls that have drawn global condemnation.

The explosion on Mururoa Atoll, 750 miles southeast of the island of Tahiti, released energy of “less than 30 kilotons,” the Defense Ministry said.

By comparison, the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945 measured slightly less than 20 kilotons.

French scientists will use data obtained from the blast to calibrate instruments that could make future testing unnecessary, the Defense Ministry said.

Condemnation and protest have echoed across the globe since the blasts began. The first explosion, on Sept. 5, led to violent demonstrations in Papeete, the capital of French Polynesia on Tahiti.

“Whilst people around the world are hoping for a safe and peaceful New Year, President [Jacques] Chirac is instead guaranteeing one of continued nuclear weapons testing and a world filled with nuclear weapons,” the environmental group Greenpeace said in a statement after the latest blast.

Chirac first planned eight tests by the end of May but has said he could cut the number to six, and authorities have said testing could be completed in February. Chirac has said it will definitely be done by the end of May, at which point he has promised France will sign the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.

The tests followed a three-year moratorium imposed by former President Francois Mitterrand.