The World - News from April 3, 1986

The United States has revised the way it measures Soviet underground nuclear tests, and the new method indicates that fewer of the blasts have violated a 1974 treaty than had been charged, a high-level U.S. official said. The change in the measurement was urged by the CIA, said the official, who refused to be identified, and it involves the interpretation of the force of the tests through seismological data. He added that is why President Reagan has invited the Soviets to send observers to the U.S. test site in Nevada--so they can make on-site use of new technology to see that the United States is complying with the treaty.