American Notes NUCLEAR TESTING

Assorted tools, wire, rocks and dirt are not the stuff that spooks seek in spy novels. But such materials turned up last month when Soviet inspectors searched personal items being shipped home by three Americans working for the Energy Department at the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site. Soviet authorities charged that the items were sensitive and that shipment of them was banned under the agreement permitting each superpower to monitor underground tests on the other's territory.

Embarrassed U.S. officials conceded that the attempted shipping violated the arrangements. They denied that information on Soviet warheads could be gleaned from the contraband. It was all an innocent misunderstanding by souvenir collectors, the U.S. said.