Another Bomb

In a terse statement the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission last week announced that the Soviet Union had fired another nuclear explosion. Said AEC Chairman Lewis Strauss: "This explosion was the largest thus far in the U.S.S.R.. and was in the range of megatons. The Russian tests indicate an increasingly intensive effort by the Soviet government to develop their nuclear weapons potential."

Three days later, the Soviet foreign ministry confirmed the AEC announcement and revealed a little more. The bomb, said the foreign ministry, was exploded at great height to minimize the radioactive fallout (radioactive rain fell on Japan last week), and was the occasion for research in civil defense as well as in the development of atomic energy.

On the same day, speaking at a civic reception in Bangalore. India, Communist Party Boss Nikita Khrushchev added some more information and a helping of propaganda. The experiment, said Khrushchev, used a "minimum" amount of atomic material to create a "maximum" explosion. His interpreter said the blast was equal to "a million tons of TNT." but some Russian reporters insisted that Khrushchev said "more than one million tons." Then, after announcing that "Russia will never be first to abuse this power." Khrushchev clapped his hands above his head to lead the applause for his own statement. After the applause he went on: "We shall be glad if these bombs are never exploded over cities and villages. Let them lie. Let them affect the nerves of those who want to unleash war. If someone begins a war, he will get proper answer."

The size that Khrushchev fixed for the new Russian bomb appeared to indicate that it was smaller than some super-bombs the U.S. has exploded. But neither the variation in size nor Khrushchev's self-applauded statement supplied much comfort to the week's nuclear news.

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