Decades ago, in the 60s, the French government conducted controversial nuclear tests in the islands of Polynesia. A study now reveals that the scale of damage and unmitigated health disasters that are hidden or ignored all these decades is far worse than previously thought.
In 1966, France conducted nuclear tests in secrecy in the Polynesian atolls of Fangataufa and Moruroa. The classified new round nuclear military program continued for 30 years until 1996. In total, 193 nuclear tests were conducted including 41 atmospheric tests. These exposed site workers, French soldiers, and the local population to high levels of radiation for generations.
Devastation of the French Nuclear Tests
A two-year investigation conducted by international securing researchers, investigative journalists, and data scientists put together and thoroughly analyzed an archive of roughly 2,000 pages of declassified French government and military documents.
Researchers also interviewed dozens of people of interests including former military personnel, scientists, and Polynesian inhabitants in efforts to put together a clear picture of the almost 200 nuclear tests fired at Fangataufa and Moruroa sites, that, up until now, have been shrouded in deep secrecy and red tape.
Researchers used data to create 3D modeling to estimate the true extent of damage over the populations residing in regions showered in radioactive fallout in the midsts of the French nuclear tests. The report paints an uncomfortable conclusion.
Researchers explained that the calculations conducted based on a scientific reassessment of doses received infecting roughly 110,000, almost the entire Polynesian population during that time.
Evidence analyzed from documentation suggests that contamination of radioactive fallout particles settled onto the populated regions were the basis for a 'cluster' of cancer cases affecting most of the local Polynesian population, secretly known to be linked to the new round nuclear tests by French military officials.
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Damages of the Nuclear Tests
Numerous hazardous tests were conducted during the first few years of the program, more powerful weapons that presented graver risks were fired in the 1970s, with tests conducted from 1971-1974 unleashing clouds of radioactive particles carried by the wind onto the Polynesian population.
Researchers write that roughly 110,000 people were infected compared to the 10,000 local health authorities suspect that could possibly demand compensation from the French state.
The damage of decades worth of nuclear tests conducted by the French government went far beyond native Polynesians. According to email correspondence unearthed by researchers estimate that roughly 2,000 of the 6,000 former French military and civilian staff involved in the tests were exposed to high levels of radiation.
The majority of the data assessed by researchers were souced from now declassified and open-access sources, with researchers providing details of the methodology used, and pledges to share further results to the public and scientific community.
Geoffrey Livolsi, the editor-in-chief of a nonprofit media organization-- Disclosure tells The Guardian, that the stated has previously tried with full effort to bury the toxic heritage of the tests.
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