French nuclear tests in Algeria: Ican requests a list of contaminated sites

On December 27, 1960 near Reggane, in southern Algeria, Operation Red Gerboise, the third aerial nuclear test carried out by France. AFP PHOTO FILES / HO ** B / W ONLY

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The French office of the international NGO Campaign for the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) asks the Ministry of Defense to list the Algerian territories potentially contaminated by radioactivity due to nuclear tests carried out by France in the 1960s. Sixty years later, not all nuclear waste has been disposed of.

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Backhoe loaders, engines, planes ... From the first nuclear tests in the regions of Reggane and In Ekker, France buried its waste in the sand of the Algerian Sahara.

"  This is material that was used, for example, for experiments when France was carrying out atmospheric nuclear tests, " explains Jean-Marie Collin, co-spokesperson for the French branch of the International Campaign for the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons. , joined by Maud Charlet. She tested whether tanks or planes could withstand the blast of an atomic weapon. You also have personnel, who used equipment in the context of preparing for nuclear tests, which may have been contaminated: it goes from a simple screwdriver to clothing that was also buried or left behind . "

In addition to the material probably still present, radioactive materials were also left behind, according to the NGO's second spokesperson, Patrice Bouveret. “  There were accidents during testing, which released radioactive material that was also left in the open, and still is, even today in 2020 . " 

As a result, rocks and soils are polluted ... A threat to local populations little informed of health risks, especially since not all the experimental areas have been revealed by France. The UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons should help Algeria, in the process of ratifying it, obtain more information.

► To read also : Sixty years after "Gerboise bleue", Algeria and the memory of nuclear tests

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  • Algeria
  • France
  • Nuclear
  • History

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