Home > South-Pacific & Oceania

French nuclear fallout far worse than previously admitted

Radio New Zealand International - July 2, 2013

• UN puts French Polynesia back on UN decolonisation list - Radio New Zealand International. May 17, 2013
• Paradise lost, Tonga mired in poverty - Agence France Presse. April 18, 2012
• Pacific women suffering in terrible silence - Brisbane Times. November 25, 2011
• Three Nauru presidents in a week - Agence France Presse. November 17, 2011
• Dying on Australia's doorstep - Sydney Morning Herald. September 9, 2011

Following court action in France, just over 2,000 documents were released, but citing defence secrets 114 pages were left blank, prompting concern that many pertinent facts keep being withheld.

The documents confirm that fallout from the atmospheric tests of between 1966 and 1974 affected all islands and not only the 21 atolls listed by the defence ministry three years ago.

The head of Moruroa e tatou, Roland Oldham, says a total of 26 navy vessels were also contaminated, as was Tahiti.

"There is one document that says in Tahiti, the fallout of plutonium is 500 times higher than the maximum dose that human beings can have. This is a big worry for us."

Roland Oldham says the group will consult its lawyers for the next step in getting full disclosure from the French military.

The group will tomorrow mark the 57th anniversary of the first French nuclear weapons test in the South Pacific.

See also:

• South East Asia
• South Pacific & Oceania
• North East Asia
• South Asia
• Central Asia