The United States has dropped its charge that Russia may have secretly detonated a nuclear explosion near a Russian nuclear test site in the Arctic Circle Aug. 16, U.S. officials said Tuesday.
Washington had suspected that seismic data indicated the possibility of a nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya island, which would be in violation of Russia's moratorium on nuclear tests and influence the U.S. debate over ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.We're not exactly sure whether it was an earthquake or an underground volcano.
"We're not exactly sure whether it was an earthquake or an underground volcano. It certainly was not a nuclear event. It was a seismic event," said a White House official who asked to remain unidentified.
Moscow had insisted all along that the "seismic event" was an undersea earthquake. But the CIA had initially reported to the White House that it was likely the result of an explosion, leading U.S. officials to lodge a strong protest in Moscow.
As recently as Oct. 20, National Security Council arms expert Robert Bell was still saying that while a quake could not be ruled out, "You can't rule out it was an explosion."
CIA Director George Tenet had appointed four independent experts to review the spy agency's analysis of the seismic event, and the experts agreed it was not a nuclear blast.
"The CIA actually made the determination that this was a non-nuclear event, and we agreed with that finding," the White House official said.
There was no indication that the United States planned to apologize to Russia over the accusation. President Clinton spoke to Russian President Boris Yeltsin by phone last week to report on Clinton's summit with Chinese President Jiang Zemin.
The evidence showed the "event" was 80 miles from the test site and under the Kara Sea. It was detected by sensors in Sweden, Norway, Finland and Russia and was automatically reported to a monitoring center in the Washington suburb of Arlington, Virginia.
The last confirmed test at Novaya Zemlya was in 1990.
A U.S. Senate vote on ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty is expected next year. U.S. legislation barring American tests is conditional on Russia maintaining its moratorium.