110,000 people are victims of the French nuclear tests in the Pacific Ocean alone

A new report issued by an international group of security researchers, data scientists and investigative journalists has resolved the decades-old debate about the French government's involvement in the nuclear experiments it had conducted in the French Polynesia islands in the Pacific Ocean, which resulted in the infection of 110,000 people with radioactive contamination.

This report has reviewed the true extent of the health disaster resulting from these experiences, which cannot be ignored despite the deliberate government attempts to conceal them.

30 years of radioactive pollution

According to an article for Science Alert reported on March 10, an international team of researchers has compiled and analyzed an archive of nearly two thousand pages of French government and military documents that were recently lifted.

Their work, which lasted two consecutive years, resulted in the issuance of a detailed report explaining the disastrous results caused by the nuclear tests that France had begun at the beginning of 1966 as part of a secret military program in the Polynesian atolls, specifically the islands of Moruroa and Vangatova, which lasted for nearly 30 years, including nearly 200 A nuclear detonation, before ending at a later time during the period of the mass protests of 1996.

The report shows that the most powerful weapons that pose the greatest danger to civilians in French Polynesia were used during 1971 and 1974, and resulted in huge clouds of radioactive particles carried by the winds - without the slightest warning - to the defenseless population.

Almost all residents of Polynesia were exposed to radioactive contamination at that time, approximately 110 thousand people (Reuters)

The main cause of cancer

The researchers used new 3D modeling techniques and data analysis to extrapolate the scale of the damaged and populated area that was exposed to radioactive dust in the aftermath of the explosions.

Upon re-scientific evaluation of all the radiation doses to which the inhabitants of those regions were exposed, the researchers concluded that almost all of the inhabitants of Polynesia were exposed to radioactive contamination at that time, that is, approximately 110 thousand people.

The evidence that was monitored in the documents also indicates that the results of this contamination with radioactive particles was a major cause of a "group" of cancer cases affecting the local population in those islands, which was related to the tests of French military officials.

Army scientists at that time covered up the experiments despite their awareness of the effects of radioactive pollution and the grave dangers that it produced (European)

The military and policymakers got involved

Researchers conducted dozens of interviews with concerned residents of the affected islands, in addition to individuals who worked in the French army in that system at the time, with the aim of drawing an integrated scenario for all parties participating in the event at that time.

The researchers also touched on the blackout imposed by army scientists at that time despite their awareness of the effects of radioactive pollution on the ground, air and drinking water and the grave risks that result from it, especially for children, many of whom were documented with cancer in the years following those tests.

Although meteorology had indicated in that period that the winds would carry toxic clouds full of radioactive particles to populated islands, this did not discourage those responsible for carrying out those tests, the most famous of which was the accident of a device called the Centaure explosion in 1974, which led to the spread of quantities of Great radiation at a time when the population of the French Polynesian islands was about 125 thousand people.

Surprisingly, the military assessments published over the past decades had deliberately underestimated the risks that resulted from their nuclear tests, and even went so far as to deny any link to the observed negative effects.

The French authorities rejected without any justification more than 80% of the compensation requests for those affected (Reuters)

100 million euros in compensation

To this day, the French government has compensated approximately 454 people only in an estimate of having been harmed by these experiences.

In return, the authorities refused - without any justification - more than 80% of the requests.

Thus, researchers expect, according to the new findings that support those affected by a huge set of publicly available evidence, that nearly 110,000 people will claim their rights to compensation from the French government.

According to email correspondence exchanged within the French Ministry of Defense, it was found that the damage of radioactive contamination has exceeded the indigenous population of Polynesia, as two thousand people out of 6 thousand ex-military and civilian who participated in the tests, who were already infected or may be infected, were detected. Cancer caused by radiation. "

Finally, this report is the first independent scientific attempt to assess the extent of the damage resulting from the French nuclear tests, which the state tried hard to obliterate, and refused to recognize the thousands of victims in the Pacific Ocean, whose total compensation is expected to reach nearly 100 million euros.