FRANCE'S TESTY PAST ON NUCLEAR WEAPONS
July 10, 1985: Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior is sunk in a New Zealand harbor by French intelligence agents. The environmental group was launching a campaign against surface nuclear tests by France in the South Pacific.
April 8, 1992: French President Francois Mitterrand suspends underground nuclear tests. The US, Britain, and the Soviet Union announce their own suspensions; China abstains.
July 15, 1993: French Prime Minister Edouard Balladur initiates a working group to "reflect on the consequences on our nuclear deterrent of a moratorium on testing," following a Chinese nuclear test.
May 5, 1994: Mitterrand announces there will be no more nuclear tests, calls for a $2 billion program to develop computer simulations of nuclear tests.
May 15, 1995: China conducts a nuclear test only four days after the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty is signed.
June 1996: Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty comes into effect.
