FRANCE: Atom Thriller

Five thuds in the night

Three night watchmen who patrol the cluttered yards of an industrial plant in the French Riviera town of La Seyne-sur-Mer were about to begin their 3 a.m. rounds when they heard five dull thuds from one of three unmarked rectangular hangars on the factory grounds. Rushing to the building, they found its alarm system disconnected but its hermetically sealed doors unopened. No intruder was spotted scaling the yard's 6-ft. walls.

Inside the hangar, the guards discovered two ruined nuclear-reactor cores blasted apart by five charges of plastic explosives...

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