France Sets Off Nuclear Explosion

France announced Tuesday night that it had set off an underground nuclear explosion at the Mururoa Atoll in the South Pacific, defying a growing drumbeat of worldwide protests against President Jacques Chirac’s decision to resume nuclear weapons testing after a three-year moratorium.

The French Defense Ministry said the test blast - the first of up to eight scheduled - was detonated at 11:30 p.m. Paris time, after final deadlines for local newspapers and television news broadcasts had passed. It said the destructive power of the blast was equivalent to less than 20 kilotons of conventional explosive, which nuclear experts described as relatively small compared with previous French tests.

Ships carrying environmental protesters are surrounding Mururoa. Two former British commandos were arrested Tuesday after making it through tight French security and reaching the atoll. One had spent the night there.

The controversial blast in French Polynesia was carried out in the face of an unprecedented outcry by Asian and Pacific nations. The governments of Japan, Australia and New Zealand have lodged furious diplomatic protests, while consumer boycotts of French wine, cheese and fashion products have proliferated in the region.

In Washington, the White House expressed regret that France carried out the test and urged the French government to refrain from conducting any further ones.