The French weekly newspaper Le Canard enchaîné provides aggressive
and biting coverage of the nuclear establishment in a way that mainstream media
refrain from doing. Le Canard has
been in print since 1915, except for a period during the German occupation when
it was forced to close. The journal had a moment of international fame in
September 2013 when it ran satirical
cartoons about Tokyo being awarded the 2020 Olympics in spite of Japan’s
troubles containing its nuclear catastrophe.
Unfortunately for readers who would like
easy access to its reporting, Le Canard
has stuck to its policy of being print only. There is a Le Canard enchaîné
website, but it exists only to introduce the journal, sell
subscriptions and occupy the domain name that imitators and detractors would
like to possess.
Occasionally, I notice people in my social
network share photos of pages from Le
Canard, and today I came across the following report about the plight of
French veterans of nuclear testing. I’m posting this translation of content
from Le Canard, hoping that they won’t
mind the publicity and the fact that this sample is made available to English
readers as an act of solidarity with Les oubliés du nucléaire (the forgotten nuclear
veterans).
A less than glowing
report for French nuclear veterans
translated
from French
2014/10/29
It’s a small victory for nuclear veterans of
atomic testing in Algeria and Polynesia, and for their families! Will their
exposure to radiation finally receive [official] recognition? Maybe not, but
according to a recent decree, it will now be the Minister of Health, not the Minister
of Defense, who will preside over the commission in charge of compensation.
Until now, it has been the military that was judge and jury when it came to
recognition of exposure to radiation.
And there is quite a job ahead. The last report
of the Committee for Compensation for Victims of Nuclear Tests is revealing: of
the 911 cases reviewed since its creation in 2010, 16 have resulted in damages
paid by the state. Less than 2% of applicants received a positive response.
That’s a real victory of sorts [for one side of the dispute].
The reason for this outcome, according to
Jean-Luc Sans, president of AVEN (Association des vétérans des essais nucléaires), is that the administration
always uses the same formula to establish the causal link between presence at
the site of nuclear tests and illnesses that developed thereafter. The
calculations made with this formula are so complex that even specialists in
nuclear medicine (consulted by the commission) can make no sense of them.
What’s more, this formula takes no account of
certain radioactive elements such as cobalt 60, a very toxic radionuclide
released in nuclear explosions. “When this formula is applied, the result is
always that the risk was negligible,” claims Corinne Bouchoux, ecolo* senator and
author of a scathing report on the compensation law.
As a result, administrative tribunals are now
studying no fewer than 300 appeals against rejected claims. Because the
administration systematically appeals any judgment that goes in favor of
veterans, delays are accumulating. In 2015, the Conseil d’Etat is supposed to have settled the cases which were
filed in 2010. The irradiated and contaminated victims have been waiting for
thirty years, so it’s not like anyone is in a hurry, right?
translated
from French:
*
The term ecolo refers to the Group écologiste du sénat, a coalition within the
French senate that promotes progressive environmental policies.
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