Latest news with #nucleartests
The Guardian
27-05-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
France spent €90,000 countering research into impact of Pacific nuclear tests
France's Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) has spent tens of thousands of euros in an effort to counter research revealing that Paris has consistently underestimated the devastating impact of its nuclear tests in French Polynesia in the 1960s and 1970s. Days before a parliamentary inquiry presents its report on the tests, documents obtained by the investigative outlet Disclose, and seen by Le Monde and the Guardian, suggest the CEA ran a concerted campaign to discredit the revelations. A 2021 book, Toxique, which focused on just six of the 193 nuclear tests that France carried out from 1966 to 1996 at Moruroa and Fangataufa atolls, drawing on 2,000 pages of declassified material and dozens of interviews, concluded that they contaminated many more people than France has ever acknowledged. The latest documents show that a year after the book's publication, the CEA published 5,000 copies of its own booklet – titled 'Nuclear tests in French Polynesia: why, how and with what consequences?' – and distributed them across the islands. As part of an operation costing more than €90,000, the commission also flew a four-man team by business class to French Polynesia, where they stayed at the Hilton hotel, to meet local dignitaries and give interviews to the media. The CEA's booklet, printed on glossy paper, claimed to provide 'scientific responses' to the 'allegations' contained in Toxique, whose authors it said did not have 'the same level of expertise'. It claimed contamination had been limited and that France always behaved transparently and with respect for local inhabitants' health. The publication of Toxique – based on the investigation by Disclose, Princeton University's science and global security programme and Interprt, an environmental justice research collective – caused a furore in France, prompting visits to French Polynesia by a minister and the president, Emmanuel Macron, who acknowledged France's 'debt' to the region. In one 1974 test alone, the scientific research found, 110,000 people – the population of Tahiti and its nearby islands – could have received a radiation dose high enough to qualify them for compensation if they later developed one of 23 different cancers. Toxique alleged the CEA has long underestimated the radiation levels involved, significantly limiting the numbers eligible for compensation: by 2023, fewer than half the 2,846 compensation claims submitted had even been judged admissible. The parliamentary inquiry, which has so far called more than 40 politicians, military personnel, scientists and victims, is due to report before the end of May on the social, economic and environmental impact of the tests – and whether France knowingly concealed the extent of contamination. The CEA's military division, CEA/DAM, the inventor of France's atomic bomb, has repeatedly called this a 'false assertion'. But France's nuclear safety body, the ASNR, has since acknowledged 'uncertainties associated with [the CEA's] calculations' and confirmed to the parliamentary inquiry that it was impossible to prove people received radiation doses lower than the compensation threshold. The CEA said in a statement that the aim of its booklet 'was to provide Polynesians in particular with the elements to understand' the tests and their impact. It said the booklet applied 'the necessary scientific rigour' to explain 'the health and environmental consequences of the tests' in a 'factual and transparent manner'. Vincenzo Salvetti, a former head of the CEA/DAM and a member of the 2022 mission to French Polynesia, denied the booklet was intended as the CEA's official version of events or a response to Toxique. He said previous CEA publications – particularly a 2006 report that the Toxique researchers calculate underestimated the actual radioactive contamination levels of one nuclear test by a factor of three – had been 'much too technical'. Salvetti confirmed, however, that the booklet stated that the health of Polynesia's inhabitants had been a 'constant concern' of the French state and that France had behaved throughout 'with a transparency without precedent or international equivalent'. Nonetheless, the inquiry has heard that the CEA/DAM has so far declassified only 380 documents in the four years since Macron demanded 'greater transparency' around the tests and their consequences – compared with 173,000 declassified by the army. Jérôme Demoment, the director of CEA/DAM, told the parliamentary inquiry earlier this year that it was 'highly likely, if we were to have to manage [nuclear tests] today, that the system put in place would respond to a different logic'. Forty-six of France's nuclear tests were atmospheric, exposing the local population, site workers and French soldiers who were stationed in Polynesia at the time to high levels of radiation before the testing programme was moved underground in 1974. Radiation-related thyroid, breast and lung cancers, as well as leukaemia and lymphoma, are prevalent across the islands. For its part, the French army has said up to 2,000 military personnel could have been exposed to enough radiation to cause cancer. 'The notion of a 'clean bomb' has generated controversy, which I fully understand,' Demoment told the parliamentary inquiry. 'No nuclear test generating radioactive fallout can be considered clean.'
BBC News
19-05-2025
- Health
- BBC News
Nuclear veterans hand 'evidence dossier' to police
A man who was exposed to the nuclear tests in the 1950s is calling on police to investigate what he has described as a 74-year Morris, of Rochdale, Greater Manchester, was 18 when he was sent to Christmas Island in the Pacific, where bombs were detonated in a serious of infamous tests, and has suffered a range of health problems 87, he is part of a group of veterans who have lodged a criminal complaint about the Ministry of Defence (MoD) saying they are "devastated at the way veterans are being denied justice".They claim the department's actions amount to potential misconduct in public office with a cover-up of radiation experiments - a claim the MoD refutes. Mr Morris said the evidence the veterans have is a "ticking time bomb".He said he witnessed the testing of four hydrogen bombs as part of Britain's effort to demonstrate its nuclear capabilities during the Cold War. The veterans, alongside the Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham, have now handed in a 500-page dossier of evidence, collated by the Mirror newspaper, to the Metropolitan Police. Mr Morries was dressed in just shorts, a shirt and sunglasses even though he was positioned less than 20 miles (32km) away from the explosion, he told BBC North West also worked in a laundry, washing contaminated clothing."I helped to produce an evil, evil weapon and trust me what I saw will live with me forever," he Morris was one of about 22,000 military personnel exposed to the nuclear tests. Many have since died and Mr Morris said many of his troop died from has also had cancer and lost a son at four months old, which he believes was down to his own exposure to radiation. He claims he was given urine and blood tests and chest x-rays during his time on the island, but said his medical records show no trace of the results."I had an x-ray taken before I went to Christmas Island, I had one after I came back. I don't know why, I don't know the results of those x-rays and I still don't know the results," he said. He said the MoD would not release the details, which he calls "scandalous".Regarding their dossier for the police, Mr Morris said "time is of the essence" as many of the survivors are now in their 80s and taking the case to the police was a "last resort", but he has grown frustrated with what he feels is a lack of veteran had a meeting with Sir Keir Starmer in 2021 when he was leader of the opposition but is now appealing to meet him as Prime Minister - to make good on what the group believe was a pledge made by the Labour Party."All I want is to sit down with Keir Starmer and to find a resolution which will suit the government and the veterans," he said. Asked if he also wanted an apology, he said it was "essential". 'Clear evidence' Mayor Andy Burnham said: "In my view, there is clear evidence of misconduct in public office and following the 80th anniversary of VE day the investigation of it can wait no longer."The MoD said: "The Minister for Veterans and People has commissioned officials to look seriously into unresolved questions regarding medical records as a priority, and this is now under way. "This work will be comprehensive, and it will enable us to better understand what information the department holds in relation to the medical testing of service personnel who took part in the UK nuclear weapons tests, ensuring that we can be assured that relevant information has been looked at thoroughly."The BBC has not received a response from the Prime Minister's office. Listen to the best of BBC Radio Manchester on Sounds and follow BBC Manchester on Facebook, X, and Instagram. You can also send story ideas via Whatsapp to 0808 100 2230.
