Paris hails a “new page” in nuclear saga

Jason Brown



French Polynesia may be set to lose millions from the planned departure of most armed forces in the territory, but looks likely to claw back a bit through nuclear compensation.
Paris last month agreed to “open a new page” over decades of calls for compensation for workers and families exposed to the fallout from atmospheric tests of nuclear bombs, including at least one accident.
A draft bill is underway to enable compensation payments.
“Broadly satisfied”, is how the leader of the Assembly of French Polynesia, Philip Schÿler, declared, saying that reservations expressed by the deputies on the bill “have been taken into account”.
He had also received “some assurances” about the makeup of a compensation monitoring committee.
Schÿler was in Paris a few days ahead of a visit by President Oscar Temaru who was also there to meet French defence minister Hervé Morin, who welcomed the progress of the negotiations.
“This allows France to finally draw a line under this period of its history,” said Morin, and also “to recognise the suffering of the victims of the radioactive fallout, who could then develop a disease. And, finally, open a new page.”
Compensation negotiations indeed begin a new page.
The French nuclear test saga began on July 2, 1966, when France set off its first atmospheric blast, a 28-kiloton bomb on a barge floating in Moruroa lagoon.
So jolly were scientists, they called a second bomb Tamouré—the French spelling for tamure—the traditional dance of French Polynesia and the Cook Islands.
About two years later, the French military set off their biggest bomb, a 2600-kiloton monster, nearly 100 times more powerful than the first. Testimony from workers in 1990 claimed Fagataufa was declared off-limits for the next six years.
As well as the fallout, there were accidents such as on July 6, 1979, when there was an explosion at Moruroa—or Mururoa—as the French military insisted on calling it.
“Estimates put deaths at two, seriously injured at six,” states a Hiroshima monitoring site.
Since testing started, 43 years ago, residents expressed concerns about the fallout with calls for compensation beginning with the establishment of a lobby group, Moruroa e Tatou–Moruroa and Us.

Gaping hole in revenue
Until now, Paris has refused to consider compensation or release health indicators from the general populace.
The May announcements followed those made last year regarding plans to pull out most of the armed forces from French Polynesia.
This will leave a gaping hole in revenues of the remote territory, a quarter million people living on remote atolls and islands, scattered over waters the size of Europe.
Already suffering from the global economic crisis, the territory fears an abyss of shrinking tourism and rapidly declining assistance.
Under the former administration of Gaston Tong Sang, French Polynesia campaigned strongly against the pullout, supporting the status quo with the Sarkozy administration.
The return of Temaru encouraged a more nuanced response, identifying an opportunity to try and meet both points of view.
Pressure was mounting within France after a year or more of near unanimous judicial decisions across dozens of tribunes enforcing compensation for illnesses among former nuclear veterans.
The government appears to have accepted the inevitable and began negotiations, rather than drag out claims over years, decades, in its usual fashion.
Justice at last?
Perhaps, but if so, long-time activist Moruroa e Tatou was sceptical.
John Doom, coordinator of the association, denounces “a fool’s bargain”, given the compensation criteria, reports France24. On Tahiti, for example, only residents from the eastern side of a peninsula are eligible,
According to the French defence ministry, residents in the capital Papeete are excluded from the reparations plan, despite being less than 70 kilometres from an eastern peninsula that is eligible.
Doom said all of French Polynesia suffered from the 23 nuclear tests.
Doom is not alone in expressing concern about the new bill.
“We completely disagree”, said Hélène Luc, a former senator and member of the pressure group Vérité et justice—Truth and Justice. Their concern: the fact that no associations will be represented on the compensation committee, with members hand-picked by government. We will submit an amendment for associations to be represented on the national compensation oversight committee”, said Luc.
Talk of amendments go up against hopes in Paris for a fast-track approach to compensation.
“If the text of the bill is considered quickly by parliament, it could enter into force before the end of the year.
“We must be able to quickly find a consensus that does not suffer from too much of a bottleneck and reach the national parliamentary assembly before the end of the extraordinary parliamentary session,” said Morin.
Morin plans to visit French Polynesia between 15 to 30 July.