Case Dismissed

A federal judge has dismissed a criminal indictment charging Sen. Dave Durenberger (R) of Minnesota with falsifying his expense accounts.

United States District Judge Warren Urbom ruled that federal prosecutors improperly used congressional records to build their case against the senator, who was accused of billing taxpayers for stays at a condominium he owned. The judge dismissed the indictment without prejudice, leaving prosecutors free to seek another indictment. Two of Mr. Durenberger's former associates were also indicted in the case and the charges against them stand.

Durenberger, elected to the Senate in 1978, announced this year that he would not run for reelection. Nuclear Secrets Revealed

The Energy Department is taking a first step toward declassifying hundreds of documents related to nuclear-weapons testing and production dating to the early 1950s.

Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary released some formerly classified information Dec. 7, including new data on the number of underground nuclear tests conducted at the government's Nevada test site and the amount of plutonium at some weapons plants.

Private researchers and nuclear-weapons-proliferation experts said the first batch of information was unlikely to produce any major surprises because private experts, for some time, have kept a rough count on weapons tests and plutonium inventories.