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Nicolas Sarkozy in Algeria: To Repair and Restore the Sites of French
Nuclear Testing in the Algerian Sahara?
[Translation of a
press release issued December 3, 2007
by the Observatoire des Armements/CDRC]
Hasn’t the time come for the French government to remove the
veil of secrecy and to undertake discussions with the Algerian government on
that painful page in the history of Franco-Algerian relations, in order to
undertake with a common agreement concrete activities of “restoration” and
“reparation”?
On the occasion of the voyage of the President of the
Republic in Algeria,
Damoclès is publishing a special number giving the state
of the site in Reggane
and formulating a series of recommendations for the attention of the French
government. “The nuclear tests have
caused contamination of the zone, which is still measurable after forty years,
and France left the site without removing its waste or even fencing it in,” complains
Bruno Barrillot
who visited the site November 13 to 19 with a team from French television (Larbi Benchicha
producer and journalist for France 3 West and Hervé Portanguen photographer).
At Reggane, in the heart of the
Algerian Sahara, between 1960 and 1961, France carried out four atmospheric
tests. These were followed by thirteen
underground tests at In-Eker in the Hoggar massif between 1961 and 1966. Between 1961 and 1963, 35 other explosive
tests with “little balls of plutonium” were likewise carried out in wells at
the Reggane site.
In Algeria, it has taken forty years for the political will
to take responsibility for the consequences of nuclear testing in the Sahara,
to appear. At the request of the
Algerian government, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) carried out
a study of the sites of Reggane and In-Eker in 1999. Then, in February 2006, the Algerian
government went further by organizing an international
meeting at Algiers “on the
environmental and health consequences of the nuclear tests” followed by a visit
to the site of In-Eker, and then authorizing a visit
to Reganne in November.
The French government has just made a gesture by giving the
Algerian government maps showing the location of antipersonnel mines buried
during the Algerian War. In Polynesia the work of rehabilitating the test sites and the medical
follow-up have been set up by the defense ministry. We submit for the discussion of the Algerian
and French president six recommendations to regulate the testing issue in Algeria.*
The special issue of Damoclès, no. 21, November 2007, can be ordered for 3 euros
from the Observatoire des Armements/CDRPC,
187 montée de Choulans,
69005 Lyon, France: www.obsarm.org .
Contact: Patrice Bouveret,
in France, tel. (0)4-78-37-93-03.
###
*The Recommendations,
translated from Damoclès,
no. 121, Nov. 2007, follow:
- The
measures to fence off the site taken by the Algerian government are
necessary and welcome, but can be only preliminary. It is probably
impossible to prevent human intrusions onto these old test sites, and even
less so dispersion by wind of some contaminated materials.
Measurements of the radioactivity
of the four Gerboise sites could be made by means of
the techniques already used on the Hao atoll [in
Polynesia]. Mapping of the gamma radiation of soils could be done using a
detection device placed on a helicopter and by taking soil samples and core
samples from suspect areas. (1) If need be, cooperation with the French
government could be sought.
Once the mapping of the
radiological situation of the firing field is accomplished, it would probably
be possible to assemble and stock the radioactive elements thus detected in an
appropriate site to be constructed on the firing field or nearby.
- We do
not have precise information on the location of burial sites for materials
contaminated after exposure to the Gerboise firings.
We do have photos of some burials (e.g. Vautour
aircraft, metals) proving that such activity took place. By referring to
information given by the Ministry of Defense to Polynesian authorities
concerning the nature, the sites,
and the dates of disposal of
contaminated wastes, it should be possible to obtain the same kind of
information for burial operations effected on the former Saharan test
sites. Within the framework of Franco-Algerian relations, the
question of mapping of these burial sites should be brought up. The
objective is to secure the
sites and to regroup wastes in conformity
with the norms of international regulations.
- We
support the legitimate demand of Algerian authorities who wish to obtain
the plans [maps] of CEA [Atomic Energy
Commission] underground
installations beneath the Reggane Plateau
military base. A comprehensive plan
for environmental rehabilitation of the CEA site should also be
proposed.
- In
view of actions undertaken by the French government in French Polynesia, notably the
“tracking of the health of former civilian and military workers at the
Pacific experiment stations and of populations living or having lived near
to nuclear experiment sites” (2) and in response to suggestions of
hospital authorities in Reggane, the
establishment of a health tracking mission for Algerians having worked on
the Saharan test sites and of populations living or having lived near to
nuclear sites should be negotiated between the Algerian and French
governments.
- So
that they might benefit from the same rights as the Polynesian personnel
who worked at the Pacific Experiment
Center, we recommend to the
Ministry of Defense authorities the establishment of a list of all local
personnel recruited to work on the Saharan test sites.
- The
French government should respect requests for information and for access
to nuclear test archives from Algerian authorities. The latter base their
claims on the fact that most of the French nuclear experiments were
carried out after Algeria became independent, and
they judge that this fact gives them a right to know what
was done on their own territory.
1) F. Fouret, W. Delahaye, C. Musa, Evaluation radiologique du
grand motu nord de l’atoll de Hao, SCEN,
November 1999.
2) Convention no. 160-07, Republic of French
Polynesia, 29 August 2007.
--translation by Robert M. Davis
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