U.S. newspaper report that it might be preparing a nuclear

Subject: HEADLINES  december 14 - 18, 1995

test, but stopped short of making an outright denial. The New
York Times said U.S. intelligence experts suspected India was
preparing its first test in two decades and Washington was
working to discourage it. The report quoted U.S. government
officials as saying spy satellites had recorded activity at
the Pokaran test site near India's western border with
Pakistan.
A Western diplomat said the possibility of a nuclear test
could not be ruled out but there was no information to confirm
an explosion was being prepared. He said the Indian government
could be expected to avoid a categorical denial. "It serves
India's purposes to be ambiguous on this," the diplomat said.
"Ambiguity in this realm is part of India's foreign policy."
India says it has the capability to build a nuclear weapon but
has chosen not to do so. U.S. experts say both India and
Pakistan, which have fought three wars since independence in
1947, could easily assemble nuclear bombs.

Dec 16 (Reuter) - Any nuclear test by India would destabilise
the volatile South Asian region and upset global disarmament
efforts, diplomats said. But the diplomats said it could
improve the ruling Congress party's fortunes in general
elections next year and strengthen Delhi's hands at
international arms talks.
For years Delhi has been in the forefront of efforts to ban
atomic weapons tests. But its frustration over the NPT and a
recent U.S. arms package for Pakistan has prompted a
reassessment of the CBTC by Indian policymakers. India held
off from criticising China and France when they recently
carried out nuclear tests.

Dec 16 (Reuter) - Southeast Asian countries, which this week
signed a nuclear-free zone treaty, are opposed to nuclear
testing by any power, including India, a senior official of
the regional grouping ASEAN said.

Dec 16 (Reuter) - Pakistan said that any nuclear test
conducted by arch-rival India would endanger peace and damage
non-proliferation efforts in the region.

Dec 17 (Reuter) - Pakistan might be forced across the nuclear
threshold if India goes ahead with reported plans for a
nuclear test, Pakistani commentators said. A commentary in the
English-language daily The News said an Indian nuclear test
would create a security peril for Pakistan that it could meet
only by carrying out a similar test.

Dec 17 (Reuter) - India's opposition parties angrily accused
the United States of trying to suppress the country's atomic
weapons capability as an opinion poll showed most Indians
would approve of a nuclear test. The reaction of opposition
parties and the opinion poll published in India Today magazine
underscored a strong national consensus in favour of resisting
international efforts, led by Washington, to curb India's
nuclear weapons capability.


Dec 18 (Reuter) - Pakistan's President Farooq Leghari said he
believed reports that Pakistan's arch-rival India was getting
ready to carry out a nuclear test.


Dec 15 (Reuter) - Southeast Asian nations signed a treaty
banning the possession, manufacture and acquisition of nuclear
weapons. The pact, inked at the three-yearly summit of the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), creates a vast
Asian nuclear arms-free zone from Burma and Vietnam in the
north to the Philippines and Indonesia in the south.
The United States and China have objected to the treaty on the
grounds that it may threaten their ability to move their
warships around the globe.
But ASEAN leaders have said the pact's protocol - a supplement
that the nuclear powers will be invited to sign - is likely to
be amended later to address most of their worries.
The treaty bans the 10 Southeast Asian countries from
manufacturing, possessing, testing, using or threatening to
use nuclear weapons, but allows them to decide individually
whether to allow port calls or over-flights by nuclear-armed
ships and planes. It also bans the dumping of nuclear waste in
Southeast Asian waters. 


Dec 16 (Reuter) - A woman protesting against French nuclear
tests in the South Pacific was dragged out of a news
conference being given by President Jacques Chirac on Saturday
as she tried to accuse him of being an environmental criminal. 


Dec 17 (Reuter) - Hundreds of people took to the streets in
central Japan on Sunday, demanding the permanent closure of
the country's fast-breeder nuclear reactor that was shut down
because of a coolant leak. About 600 activists and local
citizens held a rally outside the prototype fast-breeder.

Dec 18 (Reuter) - The operator of a Japanese prototype
fast-breeder reactor Monju which was hit by a sodium leak had
breached regulations by not immediately closing air ducts
after smoke alarms went off. Governmental Power Reactor and
Nuclear Fuel Development Corp (PNC) which runs the reactor
said it did not close air ducts until 3.5 hours after alarms
went off.  Regulations in the construction permit for Monju,
submitted to the government, stipulate air ducts to be
immediately closed when smoke alarms go off.


Dec 18 (Reuter) - Sweden's Energy Commission backed down on a
commitment to shut down the country's 13 nuclear reactors by
2010. The commission, appointed by parliament to cool down one
of the country's hottest political potatoes, said in its final
report it could not recommend a last date for the closure of
what is now the source of half of Sweden's electric power.  


Dec 15 (Reuter) - North Korea and a consortium of South Korea,
the United States and Japan signed an agreement covering the
supply of nuclear technology to the communist state. The
agreement calls for the United States to provide light-water
nuclear reactors to North Korea. In return, Pyongyang will
phase out its graphite-based nuclear reactors, which are
capable of producing material for nuclear weapons. 
Dec 15 (UPI) - The two pressurized light-water reactors, with
a capacity of 1,000 megawatts each, will be advanced versions
of a U.S. reactor design. The two reactors are worth more than
$4 billion.

Dec 16 (Reuter) - South Korea welcomed the signing of an
agreement covering the supply of nuclear reactors to communist
North Korea. It also said Pyongyang should agree to talks
between the two Koreas, which have been technically at war
since a 1953 truce ended the Korean war. 

Dec 17 (Reuter) - North Korea has welcomed the signing of an
agreement to supply it with two light-water nuclear reactors