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Ex-French nuclear chief charged over Chernobyl cover-up, Terra Daily, Some 12.500 people, according to the police, protest in Cherbourg, northwestern France, 15 April 2006, against a new kind of reactor, the EPR (European Pressurized Reactor) and to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Chernobyl
Paris (AFP) May 31, 2006The former head of the state-run French body monitoring radiation was charged Wednesday with “aggravated deceit” over the alleged cover-up
of the effects of the May 1986 Chernobyl disaster on France.
Pierre Pellerin, 83, was charged by magistrate Marie-Odile
Bertella-Geoffroy after four hours of questioning, his lawyer Georges
Holleaux said, while adding that he was only a witness for the main
accusation of causing “involuntary harm.”

An experts’ report leaked at the end of last year said that the
state-run Central Service for Protection against Radioactive Rays
(SCPRI), which Pellerin headed, knew of high levels of contamination
in Corsica and southeastern France but kept the details under wraps.

Bertella-Geffroy has since 2001 been examining allegations that the
atomic cloud from the Chernobyl explosion in Ukraine caused a surge in
cases of thyroid cancer in parts of France. There are some 500 civil
plaintiffs in the case, along with the Independent Commission for
Research and Information on Radioactivity, which was set up following
criticism of the SCPRI, and the French Association of Victims of
Thyroid Cancer.

The report states that the SCPRI issued imprecise maps that concealed
the high levels of fallout in certain areas, according to sources who
saw the document.

It also states that with full information health authorities could
have taken targeted steps to reduce the exposure of vulnerable people
such as children and pregnant mothers.

Anti-nuclear groups have long alleged that the French government
deliberately played down the risk posed by the Chernobyl cloud,
notably in order to protect the image of France’s own nuclear
industry.

Early last year anti-nuclear campaigners demanded that Pellerin be
placed under judicial investigation in the case,

September 15, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | history, secrets,lies and civil liberties