nuclear-news

French Polynesia to regain islands, France to provide radiation protection

most of the radioactive material was transported into the upper atmosphere and dispersed.”….
 in August 2006, an official report by the French government confirmed the link between an increase in cases of thyroid cancer on the atolls and France’s atmospheric nuclear tests.

French Senate OKs Return of Nuclear Test Atolls to French Polynesia PARIS, France, January 19, 2012 (ENS) http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/jan2012/2012-01-19-01.html  – The Senate of France has passed legislation that transfers two Pacific atolls used for atmospheric and underground nuclear testing back into the public
domain of French Polynesia….

…If the proposed legislation becomes law, the atolls would be returned to French Polynesia, but France would continue environmental remediation and monitoring of radiation
and geomechanics there “in a sustainable manner.”
Radiation protection of people and monitoring devices would be
provided by France in cooperation with French Polynesia and the
municipalities of Tureia, Gambier, of Nukutavake and Hao, under “the
precautionary principle enshrined in the Charter of the Environment
2004.”

The bill makes it a crime to undertake research for military purposes
on the atolls, punishable by 15 years’ in prison and a fine up to
300,000 euros.

At least once a year, France’s Institute of Radiation Protection and
Nuclear Safety would conduct a fact-finding mission to analyze and
measure radiation on the two atolls, and make the results of these
missions public within a period of 12 months.

The bill provides for creation of a national commission under the
Prime Minister of France to monitor the environmental consequences of
nuclear testing on the atolls. The commission would produce a public
report with follow-up every three years.
The commission also would conduct “monitoring of impacts and effects
of global warming on the geomechanical stability and release of
radionuclides from a dangerous part of the underground layers of the
crown of the two atolls of Mururoa and Fangataufa,” the legislation
provides, “based on radioactive waste in contact with water
lagoon.”….
Moruroa, also spelled Mururoa, was the site of years of protests by
Greenpeace and New Zealand peace groups aimed at stopping the nuclear
weapons testing.

In 1972, Canadian Greenpeacer David McTaggert used his personal
sailboat as a protest vessel. After sailing inside the exclusion zone
around the atoll, McTaggert’s boat was boarded by French commandos.
They damaged the vessel and and beat up McTaggert, who lost the sight
of one eye but was able to save film of the incident and release it to
the media.

The protests succeeded in 1974 when the French government announced
the end of its atmospheric nuclear testing program….
n 1985 the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior was bombed and sunk by
France’s external intelligence agency, the DGSE, in Auckland, New
Zealand, as it prepared for another protest of nuclear testing in
French military zones. One crew member, photographer Fernando Pereira
of Portugal, drowned on the sinking ship while attempting to recover
his equipment. Two members of the DGSE were captured, sentenced and
imprisoned, but eventually repatriated to France.

The other bombers were not arrested due to lack of evidence. In 1987,
under international pressure, the French government paid $8.16 million
compensation to Greenpeace.

French President Jacques Chirac’s decision to run a series of nuclear
tests at Mururoa in 1995, just one year before the Comprehensive Test
Ban Treaty was to be signed, caused worldwide protest.
The UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency says in a 1995 report on
French atmospheric nuclear testing over the atolls, “With the
exception of four tests (three at Mururoa and one at Fangataufa)
carried out on barges floating in the lagoons, most atmospheric tests
were carried out, suspended from balloons, hundreds of metres above
the lagoons so that there was very little local fallout of radioactive
material. Indeed, most of the radioactive material was transported
into the upper atmosphere and dispersed.”….
in August 2006, an official report by the French government confirmed
the link between an increase in cases of thyroid cancer on the atolls
and France’s atmospheric nuclear tests.

France said on in March 2009 that it will compensate 150,000 victims
of nuclear testing in French Polynesia and Algeria. An initial sum of
10 million euros was set aside for military and civilian staff and for
local populations who became ill from radiation exposure.
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/jan2012/2012-01-19-01.html

January 21, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | OCEANIA, politics international