ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times

DATE: Sunday, December 10, 1995              TAG: 9512110091
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL   PAGE: A-12 EDITION: METRO 
DATELINE: OSLO, NORWAY 
SOURCE: Associated Press 

NOBEL WINNER: N-TESTS HELPED

Nobel peace laureate Joseph Rotblat said Saturday that France's nuclear weapons tests have actually helped his 50-year campaign against doomsday weapons by rekindling the world's dread of destruction.

``I feel that something good has come of it - perhaps unintentionally,'' said the British physicist, who helped develop atomic weapons and then devoted his life to getting rid of them.

``This brought up the whole issue of nuclear weapons again at the top of the agenda, and people should be concerned,'' Rotblat said.

France is the only nation other than China to set off nuclear blasts in the past three years. The tests have angered much of the world.

Rotblat, 87, was in Oslo to accept the Nobel Peace Prize. He said he will give his half of $1.1 million to Pugwash, the anti-nuclear organization sharing the award.

Seven Americans are among this year's Nobel recipients. The chemistry winners were cited for alerting mankind to the dangers of depleting the Earth's crucial ozone layer.

Various bans on ozone-harmful substances ``are turning our work into a success story,'' said American co-winner Mario Molina, who shares the award with Paul J. Crutzen of the Netherlands and F. Sherwood Rowland of the University of California-Irvine.

LENGTH: Short :   38 lines
ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO:  AP. Joseph Rotblat (right) says France turned world 
          opinion against nuclear testing. He's flanked by Francesco Calogero,
          leader of the anti-nuclear group Pugwash.