QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ON FRENCH NUCLEAR TESTING AND THE NUCLEAR NON-PROLIFERATION TREATY

What does the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (npt) have to do with the tenth anniversary of the Rainbow Warrior bombing?

On July 10 1985 French agents bombed the Rainbow Warrior in Auckland harbour to prevent its protest voyage to the nuclear testing site of Moruroa in French Polynesia. The tenth anniversary of the bombing coincides with an historic conference on nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation.

During the Cold War, nuclear testing was a symbol of the nuclear arms race and a technical necessity to develop new nuclear weapons. An end to nuclear testing has therefore been seen as an essential lever in stopping the creation of larger nuclear arsenals and the spread of nuclear weapons to other countries.

Under the 1970 Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), nuclear weapon states agreed to end the nuclear arms race and work for nuclear disarmament 'at an early date', in exchange for non-nuclear states rejecting nuclear weapons possession. The 1963 Partial Test Ban Treaty (PTBT) had ended nuclear tests in the atmosphere, and the non-nuclear states party to the NPT saw a comprehensive test ban outlawing all tests in all environments as the next step to halt, or impede, the development of new nuclear weapons. In the preamble to the NPT, therefore, they called for a comprehensive test ban as a priority, and ever since have seen progress toward it as a 'litmus test' for assessing the commitment of the nuclear weapon states to disarmament.

In April-May 1995, a decision on the future of the NPT will be made at a meeting at the United Nations in New York. Nuclear weapon states and their allies want the Treaty extended indefinitely; the non-nuclear, non-aligned states generally are calling for much greater progress on nuclear disarmament.

A return to French nuclear testing?

France's commitment to both the NPT and achievement of a Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) is questionable. France has so far refused to sign the 1963 Partial Test Ban Treaty (PTBT) - banning tests in the atmosphere - and only became party to the Non-Proliferation Treaty in 1991. In spite of President Mitterrand's commitment to a testing moratorium, observers say France played an obstructive role in negotiations at the Geneva Conference on Disarmament in 1994, calling for some tests to be excluded from the treaty, on the spurious grounds of 'safety' testing. The French military has strongly lobbied the conservative government of Prime Minister Balladur to resume testing, arguing that at least 20 more tests are necessary before France could use computer simulated tests to develop new nuclear weapons. Prime Minister Balladur has said that France would resume testing if it were necessary to maintain France's deterrent.

What do the military want to test at Moruroa?

If testing was resumed at Moruroa, new nuclear warheads for France's new Triomphant class submarines would be among the systems tested. Twelve of these warheads will be fitted to each of the new missiles that will be deployed on the submarines after the year 2000. The military is also keen to develop and test a warhead for a new air-to-surface missile.

What are the health and environmental costs of French testing?

An independent health study of the people of French Polynesia has never been undertaken, and the military records of the health of personnel from the site have not been released. No follow-up programme has been undertaken to monitor workers' health once they have left the site.

In 1963, the French Governor of Tahiti, M Grimald claimed 'Not a single particle of radioactive fallout will ever reach an inhabited island'. But immediately after the first atmospheric tests, radiation was detected as far away as Samoa, Fiji and New Zealand. According to testimony from people affected by the tests collected and published by Greenpeace, higher rates of cancer, birth abnormalities and other illnesses have been experienced by people in French Polynesia since testing began.

The environmental safety of testing nuclear weapons underground at Moruroa has been the subject of major controversy and concern. Moruroa and its sister test site at Fangataufa are water permeable coral atolls on basalt, now containing several Chernobyls worth of radioactivity. Testing threatens the geological stability of these fragile and vulnerable environments and makes leakage of large quantities of radionuclides into the marine environment an ever present threat.

Since 1975, more than 130 nuclear warheads have been expolded in deep shafts in the atoll, resulting in huge cavities that fill with molten rock and radioactive debris. Because of the fracturing of the rock, some radioactivity leaks into the surrounding areas through venting or seepage.

While the French authorities have argued that testing is safe, several scientific missions to the atoll - all of which have had severely limited access to the site - have raised serious questions about its ability to contain the radioactivity released by underground tests.

In 1981, a mission led by French geologist Haroun Tazieff issued a warning about the geological stability of the atoll in the long-term if nuclear weapons testing continued. In 1983, a New Zealand-Australia-Papua New Guinea mission found elevated levels of tritium, and severe fissuring of the atoll and subsidence of more than one metre in parts of the atoll. In 1987, Commandant Jacques Cousteau found short-lived radionuclides such as caesium 134 and iodine 131 in the Moruroa lagoon, indicating leakage from test explosions was already occurring. He filmed spectacular cracks and fissures in the atoll as well as submarine slides and subsidence, and described the impact of testing on the atoll as creating 'premature and accelerated ageing... which explains.to a great extent, the next move of the largest nuclear tests to Fangataufa atoll.' In 1988, French officials announced that larger tests would be exploded from then on at Fangataufa.

In 1990, a Greenpeace team - even though denied access to the test site and restricted to working outside the 12 mile military exclusion zone around Moruroa -found artificial radioactivity in plankton. In 1991, an International Atomic Energy Agency mission invited by the French military to counter Greenpeace's findings found elevated levels of plutonium in samples taken 12 miles from the atoll.

Any further nuclear testing at Moruroa and Fangataufa could exacerbate environmental damage at the atoll. Greenpeace has called for a comprehensive and independent monitoring and sampling programme at the French test sites, along with a fully independent epidemiological health survey and full disclosure of all information held by the French authorities about the environmental and health effects of nuclear testing.

France - where to now?

In spite of the leadership shown by President Mitterrand in announcing the 1992 nuclear testing moratorium, France has failed to meet its obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and has yet to meet other disarmament commitments. It has: . not signed the Partial Test Ban Treaty. . failed to meet its obligations under the Euratom Treaty to provide data on radiation monitoring and contamination at the test site. . not supported a fully comprehensive test ban treaty text at negotiations at the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva. . made a reservation to the ban on radioactive contamination of the marine environment contained in the South Pacific Region Environment Protocol. . refused to sign the South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone Treaty. 

CHRONOLOGY 1960 France conducts its first nuclear test in the atmosphere in Algeria.

1960 - 1966 17 tests conducted in Algeria, including 4 atmospheric and 13 underground.

1966 - 1992 175 tests detected at the Pacific test site, including 44 atmospheric tests (39 at Moruroa, 5 over Fangataufa) and 131 underground (123 at Moruroa, 8 at Fangataufa). Some low- yield tests may not have been detected by seismic monitoring however; unconfirmed military sources have put the total at more than 200.

1972 Greenpeace sails into the French test site at Moruroa. Its ship, the yacht Vega, is badly rammed by French warships and towed to Moruroa.

1973 The Greenpeace ship Fri sails to Moruroa, is boarded and its crew detained. Later, the yacht Vega returns to the test site; skipper David McTaggart is severely beaten by French commandos.

1974 France halts atmospheric testing at Moruroa.

1981 The Vega returns to Moruroa to protest against underground testing.

1982 The Vega returns to the test site. The yacht is arrested, held for a year, and then freighted back to New Zealand by the French military.

1985 While Greenpeace is preparing to sail the Rainbow Warrior to Moruroa, the ship is blown up in Auckland harbour, New Zealand by French secret service agents, killing crew member, photographer Fernando Pereira. Later that year, Greenpeace returns to Moruroa with other vessels to maintain its opposition.

1989 Greenpeace launches the new Rainbow Warrior in Hamburg on July 10, the anniversary of the Rainbow Warrior bombing.

1990 The Rainbow Warrior visits Papeete, Tahiti, to protest against the effects of nuclear testing. Later that year, the ship sails to Moruroa. Water samples near the test site show radioactivity may be leaking from the atoll.

1992 In March, just before elections in France, the Rainbow Warrior again sails to Moruroa. It is boarded by the French military and its crew expelled from French Polynesia. On April 8, just 10 days after the Rainbow Warrior is forced to leave French Polynesia, President Francois Mitterrand announces a 12 month moratorium on French testing, to be extended if other countries follow suit.

In August, the US joined the nuclear testing moratorium followed later by the UK.

1993 In June, President Mitterrand and President Clinton announce they will extend the nuclear testing moratorium.

1994 France joins Conference on Disarmament negotiations on a yet-to-be concluded comprehensive test ban treaty.

1995 In April - May, the future of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) is to be decided at the United Nations in New York. July 10 marks the tenth anniversary of the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior.