Page 30 - IB April 2025

Nuclear Justice

IT’S A VIOLATION

FRANCE CALLED OUT ON NUCLEAR TESTS

By Vehia Wheeler America, Africa, Asia, and Europe.
The tests and resultant worldwide tensions undeniably
From 1966-1996, France conducted 193 nuclear explosions put the whole world at risk of destruction. Most at risk
on Moruroa and Fangataufa atolls in the Tuamotu archipelago were territories which had little to do with nuclear arms
of Mā’ohi Nui, known in France as its overseas territory of development, but were forced hosts of testing programmes
French Polynesia. such as those in Mā’ohi Nui.
These detonations occurred during the worldwide nuclear France officially claimed the “clean bomb” narrative until
arms race of post-World War II – a time when geopolitical 2016, stating that the nuclear bombs they detonated over
tensions of the Cold War or the East vs. West, prompted a 30-year period in the South Pacific were clean, unlike the
developed countries to develop nuclear arms at an alarming nuclear weapons that were used by other countries. Within
and dangerous rate. this logic, France’s position and insistence of cleanliness
This forced weapons testing in what were considered meant that there would ultimately be no immediate nor long-
remote places across the world such as Oceania, North lasting consequences. This was clearly propaganda to evade

30 Islands Business, April 2025