French nuclear monitoring commission to close - report

5:32 am on 2 March 2020
Moruroa

Moruroa Photo: AFP

The French publication Canard Enchaine says Paris wants to abolish the National Commission for Monitoring the Consequences of Nuclear Tests.

The Commission is reportedly among a range of agencies earmarked for closure as part of administrative changes and cost-cutting measures.

It is the body bringing together state authorities, representatives of the French Polynesian government and veterans associations to work on the list of radiation-induced illnesses deemed to be relevant for compensation.

France carried out more than 190 nuclear weapons tests in the Pacific and until 2010 maintained that they were clean and posed no threat to human health.

According to the Canard Enchaine, the French veterans group AVEN is dismayed at the plan as are politicians representing French Polynesia in the French legislature.

One of them is quoted as saying that the overseas minister also appears to be opposed to scrapping the Commission.

French Polynesia's president has reportedly raised his concerns in a letter to the French prime minister.

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