New documents obtained by investigative outlet Disclose suggest that France spent $USD102,776 to discredit research into the impacts of its nuclear testing in the Pacific.
In response, Shiva Gounden, Head of Pacific at Greenpeace Australia Pacific said: “This act by France is not just a denial of truth — it is an insult to generations who continue to live.
“From the scarred atolls of the Marshall Islands to the irradiated lands of Maohi Nui (French Polynesia), our people carry the enduring fallout of nuclear colonialism – cancers, displacement, environmental devastation, deaths, and loss of generations.
“Instead of reckoning with its past, France chooses to fund distraction over accountability, image over integrity. This is not the act of a nation seeking justice — it is the act of a nation running from it.
“The Pacific does not forget and our people will not be silenced. No amount of money can erase the truth written into our Pacific families’ bodies, our lands, and our histories.”
Pauline Boyer, energy campaigner and nuclear expert at Greenpeace France said: “This is a shamelessly ramped up disinformation campaign by the CEA [France’s Atomic Energy Commission]. Nuclear proponents continue to defend the law of silence at all costs when it comes to the victims of civilian and military nuclear industries.
“It’s high time the CEA, as well as the French government, acknowledged the facts with transparency and honesty: they deliberately chose to expose populations and their land to radioactive fallout and contamination from French nuclear bomb explosions.