Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1962-07-29
Detection Advance
Spurs Test Ban Talk
By BERNARD GWERTZMAN
Star Staff Writer

By BERNARD GWERTZNIAN
Star Staff Writer
President Kennedy and his top
advisers wrestled most of last week
with an urgent and thorny ques-
tion-should the United States
reduce its inspection requirements
for a nuclear test ban treaty with
the Soviet Union?
At present, discussions about
such a ban have reached an
impasSe in Geneva. The Soviet
Union refuses any form of in
ternational inspection. and has
announced a new series of tests
that probably will start very soon.
Normally, in view of general
world tensions, this would not be
a time when the United States
would alter its long established
test ban policy. Preliminary find
ings from a long-awaited Defense
Department study, however, have
developed new information. This
has led to the urgent round Of
high-level discussions here and in
London about a change in the
Vests stand.
From ARPA Report
- The information came to light
on July Z, when the Advanced Re-
search Projects Agency (ARPA)
of the Defense Department re-
leased a preliminary report on
Project Vela, a two-year intensive
study of earthquakes and under
ground nuclear explosions. The
report said:
D Sensitive seismic devices can
be operated in abandoned oil wells
or at the bottom Of the ocean with
considerably more accuracy and
range than on the land.
. New methods may make 1t
easier to tell the difference be-
tween a Small-scale underground
explosion Zone kiloton or lover
and an earthquake.
. New depth Of focus" tech
niques can tell how deep an ex-
plosion was, making 1t easier to
learn if a seismic disturbance was
man-made usually less than a
mile deep or an earthquake.
. 1t may be possible to detect a
nuclear explosion from as far as
5000 miles away. Oast week, it
was learned that a United States
seismic device detected a secret
French underground explosion in
the Sahara, 5000 miles away.
The Vests Present Position
The Pentagon scientists empha-
sized that their findings were still
preliminary, but disarmament Of
ficials Immediately realized the
impact Of the report.
Presently, the West insists on
a nuclear test ban treaty that
would provide a network Of
manned control posts around the
world. Nineteen such posts would
be on Soviet soil. and 16 on
American territory. These posts
would have seismic devices to
record any earth disturbances.
The West also wants the right
to hold from IL to 20 on-site
inspections a year. Such inspec-
tons would be held If a control
post could not verify a particular
explosion was an earthquake. AL
though once approving this dou-
ble-inspection plan, the Russians
now reject it completely.
1t is obvious that the control
posts would not be needed on
Soviet or American territory if
devices in neutral countries, or
In the ocean, could detect them
just as well. Likewise, If these
devices could, without a doubt.
detect the difference between all
earthquake and a nuclear explo-
sion, few, if any, on-site inSpec-
tons would be needed.
Apparently taking the Pentagon
report as his cue. Arthur H. Dean,
the top United States delegate at
Geneva, indicated on July IS that
the West might drop its control