China Says Next Blast Will Be Last Nuclear Test Saturday Second To Last Before Joining Ban

Hours after detonating an underground nuclear blast Saturday, China promised that it would test its atomic arsenal just once more before joining an international ban on such explosions.

The test and announcement came two days after China abandoned its demand that a global test ban treaty under negotiation allow nuclear explosions for such civilian uses as large construction projects.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry confirmed in a statement that it conducted a nuclear test Saturday, but gave no details. It said China’s moratorium on testing would take effect after one more test is conducted, sometime before September.

The promise to end testing at the Lop Nor site in the remote desert of northwestern Xinjiang province caps an international campaign to gain China’s compliance with a global nuclear testing moratorium. After France ended its nuclear test program in January, China was the only nuclear power still testing.

“China will continue to work with other countries for the conclusion, within this year, of a fair, reasonable and verifiable treaty with universal adherence and unlimited duration,” said the Foreign Ministry statement.

Australian scientists who monitored Saturday’s test, the first recorded since Aug. 17 last year, said it was conducted at 10:56 a.m. (7:56 p.m. PDT Friday).

The underground blast, at least the 44th detected at Lop Nor since testing began there in 1964, was estimated between 20 to 80 kilotons, according to the Australian Seismological Center and the Australian Geological Survey Organization. The bomb that the United States dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, in 1945 was about 12.5 kilotons.