Mururoa nuclear blasts lethal, French tribunal rules

By CATHERINE FIELD

PARIS - A landmark ruling that declared a French naval serviceman died from cancer caused by nuclear testing at Mururoa has been hailed by New Zealand atomic veterans fighting for compensation.

The judgment, by a tribunal assessing claims for military invalid pensions, marks the first serious crack in France's stonewall assertions that the nearly 200 blasts it conducted as part of its nuclear programme caused no harm.

A New Zealand veteran, Patrick Long, who blames his skin cancer on exposure to Mururoa tests in 1973 when he was on the Navy frigate Canterbury, said the ruling could open the way to claims against foreign Governments.

"Suddenly a Government or a legal body has acknowledged the cost of being exposed to nuclear radiation when up to now successive governments have ducked for cover."

The French case concerned a naval serviceman, Francois Janas, who died in 1999, eight years after he was diagnosed with a form of leukaemia, non-Hodgkins lymphoma.

Mr Janas joined the French Navy in 1961 and spent 18 months in two spells at the Mururoa test zone in French Polynesia.

While he was on a supply ship he worked on its desalination plant, in which seawater is pumped into condensers and turned into drinking water.

In 1991, after learning that he had cancer, Mr Janas demanded access to his medical records, but this was rejected - five years later - by the defence ministry.

In an unprecedented decision, a military pensions tribunal in the naval port city of Toulon not only rebuffed the ministry on this but also declared the leukaemia was "attributable to [Mr Janas'] military service" and ordered that his two daughters, his sole survivors, be paid a full invalid pension.

"This is the first time that a link has been established between France's nuclear activities and someone falling sick from them," Jean-Michel Garry, the daughters' lawyer, told the Weekend Herald.

"We now have jurisprudence which could help servicemen in a similar situation. But nuclear radiation doesn't discriminate between civilians [who worked at the test site] and the military."

Mr Garry said that because many details about the test programme remained classified, he could say very little about Mr Janas' military service.

Mr Janas' work in the desalination plant brought him in direct contact with water and mud that had been contaminated by fallout, and so he had received higher doses of radiation than his colleagues on other parts of the ship, Mr Garry said.

Mr Long said the New Zealand Government had never acknowledged his illness was linked to serving at Mururoa but had paid all his medical bills, including six major operations on his face and almost-weekly visits to his skin specialist. "It's surprising but they haven't grizzled," he said.

New Zealand Nuclear Test Veterans Association chairman Roy Sefton said the French ruling meant it was possible other governments around the world could face legal action from test veterans.

The association is involved in a case against the British Government over testing at Christmas Island in the 1950s and 60s. France conducted a total of 193 tests at Mururoa and a nearby atoll, Fangataufa, between 1966 and 1996, 46 of which were conducted above ground before the introduction of a ban on atmospheric blasts in 1975.

New Zealand strongly opposed the tests, once sending a frigate in protest.

Herald feature: Environment