
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 7, 1990                   TAG: 9003072037
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A/2   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: CHICAGO                                 LENGTH: Short

DOOMSDAY CLOCK RESET BY SCIENTISTS

Eastern Europe's revolutionary changes and Mikhail Gorbachev's commitment to lifting the Iron Curtain have prompted scientists to set back the so-called Doomsday Clock.

But members of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists who set the clock back four minutes - from six minutes to 10 minutes before midnight, or nuclear destruction - pointed out that nuclear weapons exist in alarming numbers.

"The likelihood of a full-scale nuclear holocaust has been reduced," said Leonard Rieser, chairman of the Bulletin's board of directors, before moving the minute hand on the bronze 18-inch instrument that hangs in the magazine's headquarters at the University of Chicago.

The 21 directors, 41 sponsoring scientists and editor of the Bulletin voted on the question of changing the clock in mid-January. Only four said the clock shouldn't be changed, while two wanted it set even farther from doomsday.

Tuesday's move marked the eighth setting of the clock in its 43-year history.

"Most Americans have thought of the Cold War as a permanent facet of international relations," said Gloria Duffy, a board member and president of Global Outlook, a Palo Alto, Calif., security research institute. "They never expected it to change in their lifetime."

Dr. Michael McCally, a University of Chicago doctor, was among those opposing change. "My concern is with the weapons" proliferation, he said.

by CNB