Monday, October 16, 1995


   BRUSSELS, Belgium (Reuter) -- France's south Pacific nuclear weapons
test site is unstable and there is a risk of landslides and tidal waves
which could submerge Polynesia, a French vulcanologist said Monday.
   "This is an unstable atoll...I would say that this situation
constitutes a high risk," Pierre Vincent, a professor at the University
of Clermont-Ferrand told a European Parliament hearing on French nuclear
tests in the South Pacific.
   "All the factors which we now know favor destabilisation in volcanoes
are gathered together at Mururoa," he said, pointing to the atoll's
steep sides, fissuring in the atoll and alteration of its substructure
by previous tests.
   "The shockwave from a new explosion...could be the trigger which
would cause the detachment of (previously disturbed sections of rock),"
he said.
   Such landslides could cause "tsunami," seismic waves from undersea
earthquakes or landslips, which could "submerge the whole of Polynesia,"
Vincent said.
   Even an immediate halt to France's current series of tests in the
region would not remove the risk, the professor added.
   France has so far carried out two of what it says will be a series of
up to eight nuclear tests on Mururoa and Fangataufa atolls, sparking off
worldwide condemnation.
   Vincent said current levels of radioactivity were not necessarily a
problem but the risk of landslides was.
   "There's probably not a lot of pollution.  My point of view is that
it is high time to stop.  If we stopped tomorrow, if that could happen,
we would certainly have to continue to monitor this atoll for decades
and probably a lot longer than that," he said.
   Swedish Professor Elis Holm, who told the hearing he had eaten
lobsters caught in Mururoa's lagoon, said radioactivity levels measured
in fish and other sea creatures did not present a human health risk.
   Holm, a radiation specialist from Sweden's University of Lund, said
radioactivity levels in fish, clams and lobsters in the lagoon were
"maybe slightly enhanced compared to what is expected."  He said this
could be due to earlier French nuclear tests in the atmosphere or from
British or American tests in the southern hemisphere.
   Euro-deputies also questioned Augustin Janssens, leader of a European
Commission experts' mission to Mururoa last month which returned saying
it had been denied full access to test sites and radioactivity
monitoring facilities.
   "For the Commission, the data is not complete," he said, adding:  "We
made our reservations because we have not been able to meet fully our
objectives.  This does not imply that the Polynesian population are not
well monitored."
   The European Commission asked France for outstanding data last week
and will decide its next step October 23.