A new report has found that the extent of radiation exposure to people involved in nuclear testing in French Polynesia has been significantly underestimated.
Over 1966 to 1996 at Moruroa and Fangataufa atolls in French Polynesia, France conducted An unofficial report has gone through thousands of recently declassified documents, focusing on the impact of three key nuclear tests: Aldébaran, Encelade and Centaure in 1966, 1971 and 1974.
The report suggests that the French government has underestimated fallout by as much as 40%, opening the door for tens of thousands more to claim compensation.
One millisievert (mSv) per annum is the maximum allowable public exposure. There is clear evidence for radiation effects at doses over 100mSv, while doses less than 10mSv are undetectable even in very large epidemiological studies and such low dose effects on human health are controversial. According to the linear-no dose-threshold (LNT) theory, all radiation exposure carries some level of harm.
Last February, a report was sent from Paris to French Polynesia on a cluster of cancers uncovered there, believed to be linked to radiation exposure . Email evidence suggests that at least 2000 of the 6000 military personnel involved in the tests had contracted at least one form of cancer.
It was only in 2010 that France established a compensation claims board for people with one of 23 cancers associated with radiation and who lived in French Polynesia at the time of the tests. However, many claimants do not have the means to access these claims, such as those who live on remote islands.
Faulty and imprecise monitoring equipment impacted the results, which were used to calculate the original dose calculations. The researchers recalculated the estimated doses absorbed by the population based on samples taken by the military at the time, and also using new methods involving meteorological data to plot the spread of radioactive fallout. Some recalculations did not show much change, but a 1966 test produced a level three times higher than the official estimate. Some 11 000 people exposed to the nuclear testing received a dose higher than 5mSv, the researchers found.
Source: The Guardian
