NUCLEAR WEAPONS

Press, Volume C, Issue 29505, 5 May 1961, Page 10

NUCLEAR WEAPONS

Slow Progress In China

(N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright) CANBERRA. May 4 Communist China would take from five to 10 years to develop a nuclear weapon, the Australian Minister for Defence (Mr Athol Townley! said yesterday. At present, he said. China's only reactor of any significance was a research reactor provided by Russia in 1957. Mr Townley was giving information on the development of nuclear power in China and Japan, following an Opposition request. He said that Communist China had been engaged since 1955 on a research and development programme for the peaceful application of nuclear energy. The programme could have military objectives. Chinese leaders had revealed an intention to develop atomic weapons, Mr Townley said. The only significant reactor was used for research and for the production of radio-isotopes for use in medicine, industry and agriculture. "If the Communist Chinese were to give a sufficiently high priority to the project they could probably design and construct a reactor and other facilities necessary for the development of a nuclear weapon within from five to 10 years.” He said the Japanese Atomic Energy Research Institute operated two research reactors. Two others had been installed in Japanese universities and seven more were planned. Authorities had made a considerable effort to develop nuclear energy as an economically competitive source of power. Public opinion in Japan would be violently antagonistic to nuclear weapon developmet. and the Government had declared it would not engage in it, said Mr Townley.