Survivor and anti-nuclear groups in Hiroshima and Nagasaki expressed surprise and anger at a Washington Post report that the Bush administration may resume underground nuclear testing.

Yasuo Miyazaki (72), managing director of the Hiroshima Prefecture Chapter of Gensuikin (Japan Congress against A and H bombs), criticized the U.S. posture. "This totally ignores the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). The reason we have been trying to close nuclear weapon test sites is to preclude exactly this kind of situation. We have to do whatever is necessary to prevent these tests."

Makoto Matsumoto (54), managing director of the Hiroshima Prefecture Chapter of Gensuikyo (Japan Council against A and H bombs), said, "This act shows utter disdain for the international desire to see nuclear weapons abolished. Since the September 11 terrorist attacks, the U.S. has been flexing its military might unilaterally in the pursuit of its own narrow interests. This unilateralism cannot be tolerated; we have to reestablish international order."

Sunao Tsuboi (76), chairperson of Hidankyo (Japan Confederation of A and H Bomb Sufferers Organizations) bristled, "I'm enraged. It's like the U.S. is killing the hearts of the hibakusha. We cannot be silent."

Nagasaki A-bomb Sufferers Council Director Yamada fumed, "The unilateralism of the Bush administration has come to this. It may not be nice to say, but the U.S. is turning into the world's biggest rogue nation."

Hideo Tsuchiyama, former president of Nagasaki University, pointed out, "It's perfectly consistent with the way things have been going, but the contradiction at the heart of the Bush administration is now exposed for all to view. Even while they trumpet their agreement with the Russians to reduce strategic nuclear weapons, they're moving to conduct underground nuclear tests in order to develop new nuclear weapons. All the talk about nuclear disarmament, it's just a ruse."

U.S. may seek resumption of nuclear tests: report

WASHINGTON, Jan. 8 Kyodo - The administration of President George W. Bush is expected to ask Congress about the possibility of resuming underground nuclear testing in the future, the Washington Post reported Tuesday, quoting governmental and non-governmental weapons specialists.

The Bush administration plans to raise the possibility of resuming underground nuclear testing to help maintain the safety and reliability of a scaled-back U.S. strategic nuclear weapons arsenal, the report said.

The administration will raise the idea Tuesday when it lays out its broad strategic nuclear plans to Congress, it said.

The highly classified Nuclear Posture Review will say that the U.S. needs to be able to resume testing at its Nevada test site in less than the two years it would now take under Energy Department guidelines, the paper quoted Energy Department sources as saying.

Some sources said the department would like to reduce the period to one year or less, according to the paper. But the nuclear review establishes no definite time period, it said.

''They do not want to say they are going to resume testing,'' the paper quoted an Energy Department official as saying Monday. ''They want the option to do so if they think they need it.''

A decision to resume testing for the first time in a decade would almost certainly provoke an outcry from countries around the world, the paper added.

In 1992, Bush's father, President George H.W. Bush, imposed a moratorium on underground nuclear testing, which

The U.S. has been conducting subcritical nuclear tests since 1997, maintaining these do not violate the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. ==Kyodo 2002-01-08