TL: FRENCH TESTING IN POLYNESIA SO: Greenpeace Pacific Campaign (GP) DT: Spring 1989 Keywords: greenpeace factsheets nuclear weapons testing france south pacific disarmament gp / Since its beginning, Greenpeace has campaigned for a Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), with protest actions against all the nuclear testing countries, USA, USSR, UK, France and China. A Comprehensive Test Ban Would: 1. Ban All Nuclear Testing In All Environments This would reduce the risks to people's health and the environment, from accident or leakage of radioactive materials. 2. Impede Proliferation A CTBT would make it very difficult for states such as South Africa and Iraq, which are on the threshold of developing nuclear weapons, to produce an effective nuclear arsenal with military confidence. 3. Short Circuit The Arms Race A CTBT would prevent the development of destabilising new technologies like deep penetrating warheads and third generation nuclear weapons such as the X-ray laser and other space weapons. It would also lower the risk of a preemptive first strike. 4. Pave The Way For Nuclear Disarmament New weapons undermine arms reduction agreements by 'substituting' for the weapons negotiated away. A CTBT would therefore create a more stable context for disarmament talks, and make it possible for there to be genuine cuts in the world's nuclear arsenals. The Greenpeace campaign against French testing has a particular urgency. When the Partial (Limited) Test Ban Treaty (PTBT or LTBT) banned atmospheric testing in 1963, the US and UK moved their nuclear testing programmes out of the Pacific and confined themselves primarily to the Nevada desert. One reason for this move was their assessment that fragile coral atolls permeated with water are not suitable for subterranean explosions. The French, forced by Algerian independence to stop testing in the Algerian Desert, opened up their Pacific Test Centre in 1966. The Pacific Test Centre comprises Moruroa and Fangataufa, low- lying coral atolls in the Tuamotu Archipelago in French Polynesia (also known as Tahiti Polynesia). By continuing to test nuclear weapons in Polynesia, the French are now the only nuclear power to test outside the borders of the nuclear weapons states. The Pacific pays the environmental price; but the nuclear weapons tested there, against the wishes of the people, are for the French stockpile, to be stationed in mainland France or on French naval vessels. In 1972 and 1973, Greenpeace sailed into the French testing zone at Moruroa to protest against continued atmospheric testing. These protests strengthened regional opposition, and eventually, in 1974, after two years of sustained public, political and legal pressure the French government halted its atmospheric testing programme. However, since 1975 the testing has continued underground. With this method, warheads are detonated in deep shafts. The explosions blow huge cavities that fill with molten rock and radioactive debris. Even without accidents, of which there have been a number, some radioactivity leaks to the surrounding areas through venting or seepage. The rest depends on the damaged geology to keep it securely contained. Moruroa is now like a piece of swiss cheese, riddled with over a hundred holes, threatening to disintegrate. If Moruroa were to fracture or break up, the radioactivity from over a hundred nuclear tests would spill into the Pacific, causing incalculable harm to the marine environment and local health. In 1988, Vice-Admiral Thireaut, Commander of the French Navy in the Pacific and of the Pacific Test Centre, announced that in the future, to prevent further serious damage to Moruroa, the more powerful blasts would be conducted at Fangataufa, 38 km away. Fangataufa is also a coral atoll, smaller but geologically identical to Moruroa. It was heavily contaminated by atmospheric tests in 1968. Given the mounting evidence of damage to Moruroa, relocating nuclear testing to an equally vulnerable atoll a few miles away must be regarded as extremely irresponsible. French Polynesia is not self-governing. It is administered as an overseas territory of France, which is a member of the European Community (EC). On February 13, 1989, a resolution from the EC Environment Committee, calling for an independent investigation into the health and environmental effects of French testing at Moruroa, was narrowly defeated in the European Parliament in Strasbourg. Of more than 560 Members of Parliament, only 256 voted: 106 for; 136 against; 14 abstained. Perhaps the Pacific seems too far away to bother about. This is a dangerous illusion. The planet is small and its nations and species are interdependent. Radioactivity knows no boundaries. In 1987, the Calypso visited Moruroa and conducted a limited survey of the atoll. At a depth of 50 metres, divers discovered the atoll to be full of cracks and fissures. The Cousteau millisub also found fractures down to a depth of 200 metres, however the team failed to document cracks in the atoll which may occur at a depth of between 800 and 1,200 metres. Fractured basalt from the tests may allow radioactive seepage, either vertically into the lagoon or horizontally into the ocean. Under the 1958 Euratom Treaty, the Commission of the European Community has responsibilities regarding all dangerous experiments, monitoring, and health and safety procedures for the 12 Member States. No independent scientific team has been permitted to undertake a thorough investigation of Moruroa. However, three brief investigations, including one led by Jacques Cousteau, visiting only places allowed by the French authorities, have revealed deep cracks and fissures and evidence of submarine slides and subsidence. Construction work, accidents and serious problems with nuclear waste management have caused an increase in ciguatera (fish poisoning) and ill health among local people. Nuclear testing is part of nuclear weapons production and proliferation. It not only threatens our environment, it risks our peace. In Moruroa's lagoon drilling rigs bore holes thousands of feet deep for nuclear tests. The use of drilling rigs began after the French ran out of sites on Moruroa itself. Each nuclear test costs approximately 12 million dollars. Greenpeace Policy 1. The Pacific Test Site should be decommissioned and closed down. There should be no relocation of nuclear testing from Moruroa to Fangataufa. 2. A Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty should be enacted and adhered to by all nuclear countries, including France and China, who have not yet signed the Partial Test Ban Treaty. Interim Recommendations: The European Community should undertake full implementation of the Euratom Treaty, especially Articles 30-39, with respect to nuclear testing. An independent international scientific team, including medical and geophysical specialists, should investigate the health and environmental effects of nuclear testing in Polynesia, with unrestricted right to visit, interview and take samples as they deem necessary.