France has underestimated impact of nuclear tests in French Polynesia, research finds

By Dilip -

France has consistently underestimated the devastating impact of its nuclear tests in French Polynesia in the 1960s and 70s, according to groundbreaking new research that could allow more than 100,000 people to claim compensation. France conducted 193 nuclear tests from 1966 to 1996 at Moruroa and Fangataufa atolls in French Polynesia, including 41 atmospheric tests until 1974 that exposed the local population, site workers and French soldiers to high levels of radiation.

Now that nuclear weapons are illegal, the Pacific demands truth on decades of testing

By crunching the data from 2,000 pages of recently declassified French defence ministry documents, analysing maps, photos and other records, and carrying out dozens of interviews in France and French Polynesia, researchers have meticulously reconstructed three key nuclear tests and their fallout. The Mururoa Files, a collaboration between investigative journalism newsroom Disclose, Princeton university’s Program on Science & Global Security and an environmental justice research collective, Interprt, suggest the impact of the Aldébaran, Encelade and Centaure tests of 1966, 1971 and 1974 was far greater than officially acknowledged….

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/09/france-has-underestimated-impact-of-nuclear-tests-in-french-polynesia-research-finds

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