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French Polynesia – call to France to pay medical costs of nuclear test victims

French nuclear compensation law snagged in Senate, RNZ,   1 June 2020 
 The French Senate has changed its position on a proposed law which would tighten the criteria for those seeking compensation for ill health because of the nuclear weapons tests in French Polynesia.
From Dateline Pacific, 6:02 am on 28 November 2019

French Polynesia’s social security agency, the CPS, has again called on France to cover the costs of caring for the victims of the French nuclear weapons tests.

The demand by the CPS coincides with a push to change the compensation law – this time by a French Polynesian advisory body, the Economic, Social, Environmental and Cultural Council.

The French military carried out more than 40 atmospheric nuclear tests, with fallout affecting islands well beyond the Moruroa test site.

Walter Zweifel has been following the debate and Don Wiseman asked him what the specific demands are.

TRANSCRIPT

WZ: The social security agency the CPS has calculated that it has so far spent $US770 million on health care costs for people deemed to have radiation-induced illnesses. The CPS covers medical expenses as well as pension payments but it is struggling financially. It has now again asking for France to assume responsibility for problems caused by its tests. The demand to be reimbursed however is not new. The CPS asked in 2010 for $US240 million, a sum which rose to $US540 million in 2015.

DW: How many people have been affected?

WZ: According to the CPS, just over 9,500 people have been taken care of for cancers caused by the tests. ……..

DW: What have the implications of the latest change been?

WZ: Well, still more claims are recognised than earlier in this decade but French Polynesia’s Economic, Social, Environmental and Cultural Council wants the law to be changed again to say that the defence ministry is responsible for the effects of the tests. This is a difficult undertaking because a French court has already ruled that the French state was not liable because there was no proof that the state was directly responsible for the damage. The payments made through the French compensation commission are defined as money given out of national solidarity and not because of any liability. https://www.rnz.co.nz/international/programmes/datelinepacific/audio/2018724390/france-again-faces-huge-compensation-demand-over-nuclear-tests

June 2, 2020 - Posted by | Uncategorized

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