The agencies are now awaiting evidence from the satellites of new activity at either Mururoa or Fangataufu which would point to a likely date for the next explosion. Although the most cautious forecast is for a test "in about a month", the Herald has learnt that the most reliable expectation is for another explosion within a fortnight. Mururoa and Fangataufu are used to test different types of nuclear devices. Andrew Meares' prize winning photo of the riots in Papeete, Tahiti, on 6 September 1995 after the nuclear test explosions on Mururoa. A demonstrator faces up to French police. Credit:Andrew Meares Meanwhile, the Federal Government is using its diplomats and ministerial contacts throughout Europe to build a strong coalition of anti-nuclear forces - particularly within European governments - to exert more pressure on the French President, Mr Chirac, to abandon the testing program.

Despite yesterday's explosion, the Government has taken new heart from Mr Chirac's announcement that the expected eight tests were likely to be reduced to six. Discussion on France's testing program, and possible ways to stop it, will dominate next week's South Pacific Forum in Madang, Papua New Guinea. Anti-nuclear protestors show their anger at the French Consulate in Sydney. 6 September 1995. Photo by Glenn Shipley Credit:Glenn Shipley The Prime Minister yesterday struck out at the test as "an act of stupidity" and "a mindless decision". "By their actions the French express contempt for the countries and people of the region and for all those who hope and work for a nuclear-free world," Mr Keating said.

The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Senator Evans, said Australia "unreservedly condemned" France's action. All other Australian political leaders joined the condemnation, and the French Ambassador, Mr Dominique Girard, was summoned to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to receive an official protest. The Leader of the Opposition, Mr Howard, taunted the Government for playing "catch-up" politics, but Mr Keating's office issued a transcript of Mr Howard's comments on June 14, when he supported the Government's initial response to the proposed nuclear tests. The ACTU president, Mr Martin Ferguson, called for a boycott of French goods and commended the Transport Workers' Union for placing a 24-hour ban on French airline flights. He also supported a call for the Australian Government to send a naval vessel to Mururoa, although the Government made it clear it had no such plans.

An Anti-nucelar protestor shows his anger at the French Consulate, Sydney, 6 September 1995. September 1995 Credit:Glenn Shipley New Zealand reacted strongly to the blast, recalling its Ambassador to France and summoning the French Ambassador to meet the Prime Minister, Mr Bolger. "I made it very, very clear that New Zealand was outraged, frustrated and angry that the Government of France had by their decision dismissed the outrage and condemnation of the world, not only the South Pacific, with their testing," Mr Bolger said. Australia's Minister for Development Co-operation and Pacific Island Affairs, Mr Bilney, who is leading a six-member parliamentary delegation in Europe, said he was "appalled and disappointed" by the test.

He said it made the delegation even more determined to bring home to France the international outrage. The cross-party delegation of Government, Opposition and Democrat MPs is due to meet senior French ministers in Paris today and tomorrow. Speaking in London, Mr Bilney said France "had blown off one of its feet" with the first test and "there was no point in taking aim at the remainder of its limbs". But the French Prime Minister, Mr Alain Juppe, described the international reaction as "bordering on hysteria", and called on French people to "keep their feet on the ground". "There are times when a government has to remain calm ... the interests of France are first priority here," he said.

Mr Juppe added that the reaction against China's nuclear explosions had not been nearly as large. The palms swayed, the sun shone, the lagoon jumped Sydney Morning Herald page 1, 7 September 1995, Credit: Andrew Byrne in Papeete. Twelve simple words. Written in red felt pen on a whiteboard outside the military press centre in English and French, they confirmed the news the world had been waiting for. Nine television cameras followed his every move, but the French officer did not hurry as he wrote: "Nuclear test this morning, 12.30 local time. Power inferior to 20 KT."

Three hours after the underground nuclear explosion which rocked Mururoa, more than 100 journalists from around the world gathered in the centre to witness the moment the Mururoa lagoon was turned into a seething froth of white water. The French military in the Tahitian capital presented the scene like a holiday travel video. The 3 -minute recording, watched in silence by the tightly packed gathering, opened with shots of a sun-kissed golden beach, swaying palm trees and the sound of the Pacific Ocean as its waves gently broke on the sand. Some of the 500 technicians who have spent several weeks preparing the test site were shown carrying out last-minute checks as two count-down clocks, one showing local time and the other in France, watched over them from the control room wall. For the past few months Mururoa has been the most exclusive piece of real estate in the world, protected by commandos, legionnaires and the French Navy.

Jacqes Chriac nuclear bomb test montage Credit:Karl Hilzinger But on the video there is a holiday feel as people are seen sitting on deckchairs waiting for the blast. In the final few seconds before detonation General Paul Vericel, commander of the French test sites in the South Pacific, is seen watching the monitor anxiously and biting his fingernails. The tension of preparing for the test amid global condemnation and constant protest action by Greenpeace activists just 12 nautical miles away in the peace flotilla is etched on his face. But the image the world will best remember from the film is the moment, a split second after the 20-kiloton device explodes, that the turquoise lagoon was transformed into a churning white mass.

Shots from a helicopter show a giant wall of water exploding into the air, hanging motionless, then crashing back. The needles on a seismograph are shown springing into life and furiously scratching away as they record the bomb's effect. And then atoll inhabitants, initially resembling picnickers on a Sydney beach, begin to cheer and clap. The final scene, in a crude attempt to convey normality on the island - reduced to swiss cheese by 30 years of nuclear blasting - is of apparently unconcerned staff riding mopeds and bicycles along a road. News of the blast took several hours to reach the citizens of Papeete, however.

French-controlled TV in Tahiti did not interrupt its regular morning cartoons to make an announcement, and it was some time before local radio carried information. this underground explosion is an outrageous act that shows contempt for the political and public will of millions of people worldwide Thomas Schultz, Greenpeace's spokesman in Tahiti Predictably, the first reaction in Tahiti came from Greenpeace, a little over an hour after the explosion, which took place at 11.30 am Tahiti time. Greenpeace's spokesman in Tahiti, Thomas Schultz, waited until Australian seismologists had confirmed the blast before making a statement. "This is a moment of sadness and anger because this underground explosion is an outrageous act that shows contempt for the political and public will of millions of people worldwide," he said.

"More than 150 governments have protested, but President Chirac has slapped those millions of people in the face and showed in a gesture of nuclear arrogance his disdain for them." Two truckloads of black uniformed military personnel, all armed and carrying riot shields, were the only visible signs that the French authorities feared a backlash after news of the test. Loading They were stationed inside the High Commission grounds and had rifles at the ready behind the three-metre steel fence. The first protester arrested was the Australian Federal Labor MP Mr Peter Knott, who was dragged away when he joined a sit-in at the building with Japanese demonstrators.

Released after four hours of questioning, Mr Knott said: "I don't want to look a f---wit over this so tell everyone in Australia I was trying to stop the violence when they arrested me. "The police were kicking and really abusing some Japanese protesters and I went over to tell the police to lay off them. I told them it was fascist to be so aggressive and they just bundled me off. Loading "At first the detectives tried to make out I had incited the trouble, but when I reminded them about Rodney King in America and how there was video evidence of what had happened, they backed off." However, the protest action which received world-wide publicity, and caused huge embarrassment to the French military as they began a satellite link press conference from Mururoa, was staged by Damian Meagher, a 23-year-old former Greenpeace envelope-licker from Sydney, and a Dutch eco-protester, Ms Lydia Rood.