France hid radioactivity levels that French Polynesia islanders were exposed to during decades of nuclear testing in the Pacific, with nearly the entire population of the overseas territory infected, a report alleges.
About 110,000 people were infected during the French military s nuclear testing from 1966 to 1996, but only 63 have been compensated, the study by online investigation site Disclose found.
The impact of the 1974 Centaur nuclear test left more than 100,000 people exposed.
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An automatic camera captures an atomic bomb blast conducted by France, on the Mururoa Atoll, part of French Polynesia, in the South Pacific Ocean, in July 1970.(AP) According to our calculations, based on a scientific reassessment of the doses received, approximately 110,000 people were infected, almost the entire Polynesian population at the time, the report said.
French nuclear tests contaminated 110,000 in Pacific, says studyInternational 2021-03-10, by Editor Comments Off 3
France concealed the true impact of its nuclear tests in the Pacific from the 1960s to the 1990s, a study has said.
Researchers used declassified French military documents, calculations and testimonies to reconstruct the impact of a number of the tests.
They estimated that around 110,000 people in French Polynesia were affected by the radioactive fallout.
The number represented “almost the entire” population at the time, the researchers found.
French Polynesia, a French territory made up of hundreds of islands and atolls including Tahiti, was the site of dozens of nuclear tests over 30 years.
France has concealed the levels of radioactivity that French Polynesia was exposed to during French nuclear tests in the Pacific from 1966 to 1996, during which almost the “entire population” of the overseas territory was exposed, according to a report.
Online investigation site Disclose said on Tuesday that it had analysed some 2,000 pages of French military documents declassified in 2013 by the defence ministry concerning nuclear tests on the archipelago.
Disclose said it worked for more than two years alongside British modelling and documentation firm Interprt as well as the science and global security programme of the University of Princeton in the US.
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image captionThis French nuclear test took place over Mururoa Atoll in 1971
France concealed the true impact of its nuclear tests in the Pacific from the 1960s to the 1990s, a study has said.
Researchers used declassified French military documents, calculations and testimonies to reconstruct the impact of a number of the tests.
They estimated that around 110,000 people in French Polynesia were affected by the radioactive fallout.
The number represented almost the entire population at the time, the researchers found.
French Polynesia, a French territory made up of hundreds of islands and atolls including Tahiti, was the site of dozens of nuclear tests over 30 years.