Government earmarks €10 million for nuclear test victims

After decades of denial, the French government has announced a compensation scheme for victims of nuclear tests carried out by France in Algeria in the 1960s and in French Polynesia over more than three decades.More than 10 years after France carried out its last nuclear test on the Pacific Ocean atoll of Fangataufa, French authorities have finally moved to address the grievances of the victims of the country’s 210 nuclear tests. In aninterview with the daily newspaper Le Figaro, Defence Minister Hervé Morinsaid the government had earmarked an initial 10 million euros as part of a compensation scheme. Morin said an independent commission of doctors led by a magistrate would examine complaints on a case-by-case basis to determine whether the plaintiffs’ symptoms are indeed related to the 18 ailments identified by the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation, which include leukaemia, thyroid cancer and other diseases. The ministry added that the list of diseases could evolve in the event of new medical discoveries.