French nuclear tests 'showered vast area of Polynesia with radioactivity'

[bananas]

Source: Guardian

Declassified papers show extent of plutonium fall-out from South Pacific tests of 60s and 70s was kept hidden, says French paper


Tahiti, above, was exposed to 500 times the accepted maximum radiation level from nuclear tests in the 20th century, reports Le Parisien.

French nuclear tests in the South Pacific in the 1960s and 1970s were far more toxic than has been previously acknowledged and hit a vast swath of Polynesia with radioactive fallout, according to newly declassified ministry of defence documents which have angered veterans and civilians' groups.

The papers, seen by the French paper Le Parisien, reportedly reveal that plutonium fallout hit the whole of French Polynesia, a much broader area than France had previously admitted. Tahiti, above, the most populated island, was exposed to 500 times the maximum accepted levels of radiation. The impact spread as far as the tourist island, Bora Bora.

Thousands of veterans, families and civilians still fighting for compensation over health issues have insisted France now reveals the full truth about the notorious tests whose impact was kept secret for decades.

From 1960 to 1996, France carried out 210 nuclear tests, 17 in the Algerian Sahara and 193 in French Polynesia in the South Pacific, symbolised by the images of a mushroom cloud over the Mururoa atoll. For decades, France argued that the controlled explosions were clean. Jacques Chirac, the French president, controversially resumed nuclear atoll explosions in the South Pacific shortly after being elected in 1995.

Le Parisien said the documents "lifted the lid on one of the biggest secrets of the French army". It said papers showed that on 17 July 1974, a test exposed Tahiti to 500 times the maximum allowed level of plutonium fallout.

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Bruno Barillot, who has investigated the impacts of the nuclear tests for the Polynesian government, complained of the high levels of thyroid cancers and leukaemia in Polynesia. He said the declassified documents revealed Tahiti had "literally been showered with plutonium for two days" during the Mururoa test; from the outset France knew the impact spread further than it publicly admitted. But of the 2,050 pages declassified, 114 remained blacked out.

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Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jul/03/french-nuclear-tests-polynesia-declassified

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This makes me angry.
French scientists have been lying about this for decades.
It's one of the reasons you just can't trust the nuclear industry.

[Auggie]

1. Can you trust any Capitalist with toxic substances?

Profit above poison.

[bananas]

2. France is Socialist. nt

[Auggie]

4. Not totally

[FrodosPet]

6. Amen!

In a pure, totally global socialist system, everyone would put the needs of the collective above their own needs and desires.

With a single worldwide socialist government, there would be no more production for profit. All the labor and all the resources would be allocated scientifically, using flawless algorithms and universal management, to give every human being exactly what they need for food, shelter, clothing, travel, education, and culture. No more and no less.

With a single worldwide socialist government, there would be no more wars. No more nationalism, regionalism, whateverism. Everyone would stand united with one voice, one philosophy, one ideology. Conflict would be a subject of historical study, and not a focus of current expenditures.

The question is, how do you make it happen without massive amounts of violence and incarceration? How do you prevent underground trade and theft by small groups and individuals? How do you control production so that no single entity produces too much or too little? How do you deal with individuals who have skills and health, but do not want to perform their appointed necessary labor?

[bananas]

3. 2006: Head of France's Nuclear Watchdog 'Lied Over Chernobyl Fallout'

The nuclear industry is run by lying liars.

http://www.truth-out.org/archive/item/63232:head-of-frances-nuclear-watchdog-lied-over-chernobyl-fallout

Head of France's Nuclear Watchdog 'Lied Over Chernobyl Fallout'

By John Lichfield
The Independent UK
Friday 02 June 2006

Twenty years after the explosion at the nuclear reactor at Chernobyl in the Ukraine, the legal fallout has just reached France.

Professor Pierre Pellerin, who was the head of France's nuclear safety watchdog 20 years ago, has been formally accused of deliberately concealing the seriousness of contamination of parts of the French countryside from the French people.

An investigation is continuing into the responsibilities of politicians in the alleged cover-up, including the role of Jacques Chirac, who was the prime minister. But for the time being, anti-nuclear campaigners and a group of 500 thyroid cancer sufferers are celebrating a first victory in a marathon legal campaign.

Professor Pellerin, now 82, has been placed under formal investigation for "aggravated deception", but a potentially more serious accusation of causing "involuntary bodily harm" was dropped on Wednesday.

At the time of the explosion at the Chernobyl reactor on 26 April 1986, the professor was head of the agency, attached to the Health Ministry, which reported on risks to health. As the "cloud" of contamination passed over France between 30 April and 5 May that year, Professor Pellerin issued a series of reassuring statements. He published low average findings of radiation across whole regions. Campaigners have long protested that this deliberately concealed the fact that there were pockets of contamination which suffered high rainfall as the Chernobyl cloud moved westwards.

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[Mnemosyne]

5. Truth. Thank you, bananas. K&R nt