Argentina denies report it's on verge of A-bomb

Argentina has denied a British press report that it is in the advanced stages of manufacturing its own atomic bomb. Carlos Castro Madero, president of the National Atomic Energy Commission, said over the week- end that the report was "totally unfounded."

Monitor Latin America correspondent James Nelson Goodsell writes that the Argentines go to great lengths these days to stress the peaceful use of nuclear energy. They have both US and West German assistance in building atomic plants for generation of electricity -- and are probably the most advanced in Latin America. But they also note that it would take special plants and laboratories to build an atomic bomb, "and we simply do not have such facilities," Mr. Castro Madero said. Argentina "is not on the road to m anufacturing the bomb," he added.