on this january afternoon under the magnificent dome of the senate the debate begins a debate which is not exactly popular maybe because it's about polynesia a country some eighteen thousand kilometers away with a different world yet this is a day that could go down in history nearly as to deny the environmental damage throughout in particular in french polynesia this to deny a part of every polynesians identity depriving them of their land their environment is to deprive them of part of themselves the guy who this stone comes from or. sits and this is exactly what all of this is about this afternoon nothing else this

system or. this one is all that's visualize the forty one flashes in the thermonuclear explosions in the middle of the sky should move above more money she magnificent said some of your predecessors minister. steward's visualize again the one hundred thirty one underground explosions and underwater blasts one hundred twenty three of which were and more us atolls minister my dear colleagues if i offered you this stone would you feel safe placing it under the pillow of your loved ones every night on it wouldn't you at least like to have a choice know that there are none of the parents and none of their children had this choice. after the first nuclear tests in nine hundred sixty in the midst of

the algerian uprising france needed to find new frontiers as empty and as barren to steal jewry and desert. three years later france to sighted to continue its atomic saga in polynesia. for the principles and conditions the circumstances that have led us here have determined that we need to equip ourselves with a tomic force. and we stand by the decision which we have come to reach the build and if required to use our own atomic force. that same year a member of the territorial council on his way to paris was summoned to the lose a palace to testify. general de gaulle spoke very little of polynesia and he didn't

tell me about the two a toltz. enough he underlined the need to get to work it was urgent we had to act quickly. recently for him the experiments had to take place and go well. for this they needed vast open spaces remote and sparsely inhabited french polynesia was just that a large area bigger than europe the new didn't know was that two years earlier in one nine hundred sixty one topographic surveys had already been carried out. at one point he might have seen that i was embarrassed that i was questioning myself and i didn't even have time to talk see he told me that if it didn't go well you know there could have been a fair because he would declare that french polynesia would become a military territory there. just have

a good i knew that fred the state would take it by force i knew where end it would come to it was too important for friends and for dick all to go on february the six nine hundred sixty four the territorial assembly of polynesia buckled under pressure and approved the general's decision as a result to little known atolls and for tougher were taken over by the state and became defacto military zones by the way there were no grounds upon which to claim ownership of those assholes your car owners were still there so this at least have some courtesy as the polite thing to do is ask their own is if you can move in if not ok have a discussion around the table but hear nothing they moved in by force or force out with no regard for us what's the word. the reason given by the government was the launch of the crucial pacific experimentation center project. this year because c p started being built on things moving and tempers were on me we were

heading towards profit. when profit. to go wanted a credible nuclear deterrent it was a priority and nobody questioned the costs involved a few months later. a true show of france's military power. everyone was overjoyed to get within a few years the traditional culture would have completely disappeared. but. soon hundreds of workers were hired and rushed in from all over polynesia. a camp was built to hells up to four thousand people four hundred fifty kilometers

to the north the i told of how they came the largest tickle hub of the experimentation center. forty five years later the daily hustle and bustle is nothing but a distant memory only rundown remains like this problem to bear witness to its former glory. the buzzing operation that once employed two thousand five hundred people has become nothing more than a ghost town. one hundred ninety three blasts took place over the thirty years of the polynesian nuclear project. throughout this time the official position always remains the same everything is under control and the tests are safe.

we were always very poorly informed about these things we recognized what happened here ashima nagasaki and we knew what had happened during different american and english experiments but we didn't realize what it represented and what it would represent for us. it is true that at the time scientists really had no way of knowing for sure and were guided by little more than intuition especially when it came to such an important factor as wind direction which determined whether they would proceed with a test. in the one hundred sixty s. we didn't have numerical models of weather predictions so we used radio signals at about fifteen sites here the radio signals detected a balloon and by the location of the balloon and we could see the wind altitudes and then we mapped out these fifteen points and once we knew the different altitude levels of the wind the weather forecasters could use the maps to figure out the distribution of different winds in the area that you. don't.

understand the spread of particles that were possibly contaminated with the c p had developed a forecasting model but these models were relatively simple more than they predicted a certain subject three so we had a lot of faith in this trajectory that we now know that the atmosphere was far more chaotic and the margin for error was much bigger than we believed so we must take into account these uncertainties that can after a few hours in fact reach several hundred kilometers. based on evidence from the first experiment on july the second one nine hundred sixty six the mushroom cloud didn't follow the predicted trajectory at all it quickly reached the gumby archipelago and a few hours later. hit the land of money along with it six hundred inhabitants today we would call this collateral damage it would be forty years before we found out the truth buried in a document classified as top secret at the time. mangere riva reads

a level of ten billion per hour in half an hour and asked for information face to face from the local authorities. it might be necessary to reduce the real figures so as not to lose the trust of the people who realized that something had been hidden from them after the first blast. to general de gaulle know the truth but was it hidden from him as well whatever the case this is what he had to say a few weeks later in tahiti. or as you know all of the arrangements that have been made no disadvantage whatsoever also the dear people. it wasn't until the publication of an official document in two thousand and six that the full extent of the nuclear fallout in french polynesia was revealed. the ministry of defense recorded more than one hundred eighty incidents of nuclear

fallout during atmospheric testing from nine hundred sixty six to nine hundred seventy four however this was absolutely useless how did they come to this figure what data was it based on what scientific criteria we used to reports from one thousand nine hundred seventy four blast in tahiti located in one thousand two hundred kilometers from showed that only a part of the island was affected. however thirty eight years later in february twenty twelve the entire island is considered to have been affected by the radioactive cloud that didn't follow the predicted trajectory. no less serious attitude has been to take us for idiots and then make those that are an idiot seem. i clearly it's we were told long ago that the french nuclear trials were clean could do said they'd never had any problems. the russians were funny guys the americans were funny the british

were they kept saying these things they thought that we were a bit dead waited. i don't know if it is it but we've studied we know how to read fall and we inform ourselves of what happens around the world to schools we discussed the talk of a colonial power to me and still hasn't decided whether to discredit us or to just be totally complacent towards. the. economic downturn in the fine it. belonged to the deal and the rest because i think the take will be if briefly a. deliberate

torch is on an epic journey to such a. one hundred twenty three days. through two thousand nine hundred two cities of russia. relayed by fourteen thousand people or sixty five thousand killings. in a record setting trip by land air sea another space. a leg or treeless. on r t r two dot com. to boost germany's. reproductive brochure to be good to close to germany to be able to work. or. speech in. the region the whole reason good is going to a big. so well in germany the crane they say has greece and spain italy

so many other every piece of flu. in reach the who bring siemens they could bring their bangs they could extend their boat if they have a one million people come to. a market. in an attempt to make amends the government took steps to raise all traces of the nuclear testing on the island of mantle reva their nuclear shelter which in reality was nothing more than an ordinary where house covered in metal was demolished a few years ago nevertheless twenty three cases of contamination have been recognized officially. headed for how. the

island of the heart it's the third largest atoll in polynesia which was chosen as the advanced support base from the road four hundred fifty kilometers away. the base was dismantled in two thousand and since then the inhabitants have resumed a quiet and peaceful life. but the army returned in two thousand and nine for a large scale cleanup operation that will take seven years and sixteen million euros to complete. it's not going to be an easy task to restore the nature to its pristine condition. in an attempt to distance itself from its reputation the army is trying to be open about the ambitious operation. i don't i don't i thought we're entering into an area where things have been buried underground you know we can see that the first phase of research has been carried out on meaning the company or has

already dug up soil to take test samples. if so effectively by doing this first stage every. we can see the scraps of metal poking out of. france must turn this page in it's history we finished the nuclear tests we want to turn the page we want everything to be clean and tidy so that we can get back and move on to the puck that's all it comes down to we carried out trials we learnt a lot from it not just about the nuclear bomb but also concerning the world of health up until that time we use methods of a bygone era there's no shame in saying that at the time we worked in a certain way today the constraints are a lot more sensitive so we're required to pay attention to the environment we're adapting and it's only out of this necessity to the depths that we're doing this work properly. and how you've got to remember that there was medically activity. it was the advanced support base for more at the time of

the aerial trials so radioactive materials were handled there that's you know there were vulture planes stationed there that circulated the radioactive clouds to gather samples and everything was analyzed in how the boats that were contaminated in mara and frank were brought to how french decontamination there was a ca lab which analyzed all radioactive substances so it was in a town where a lot of radioactivity was handled. especially those that were heavily contaminated and were brought here by military jets during the eighty years of atmospheric testing the vultures came to this particular area where we had four stations where they could be decontaminated off and it was a simple method wearing full protective clothing cleaner sprayed the aircraft with an emulsion so that all of the radioactive particles that they collected fell to

the floor. these were then collected and brought back in a settling tank could. and the rest of the emulsion which was then free from radioactivity was wrong by a worker into the ocean just behind us. course. all of this was done under tight controls. and there were samples taken regularly to ensure that everything going into the ocean was clean. but all these procedures sufficient to guarantee that the fish will die out of polynesia for the inhabitants of how to consume this task requires an independent laboratory responsible for monitoring radioactivity in the whole of polynesia both in the air and in the food chain. about. the period of atmospheric testing if we had these after effects that impacted directly on the

entire southern hemisphere because this is then a soon as the test stopped because they quickly descended on the polynesian islands and that's was around more oh i particular coral and most of the earth which contains corals didn't retain any of the radioactivity so anything that was dumped on the ground was washed away mostly by rain into the sea today even in how you remember there were a lot of decontamination labs etc if you look for radioactivity in the earth you will find it was there at a given moment but it's since been washed away a lot so these whereas in areas where the earth contains organic matter radioactivity is retained the. area in one thousand nine hundred ninety nine before the utah was put back in the hands of the territory there were precautionary measures in check. for example in this noticeable area. which allow analyses to be taken from the bottom to see

the infiltration that there might be between the two concrete slabs. i think our core samples were sent back to the mainland and the results were collected. then afterwards by compiling the results we were able to see the exact spot where there was radioactive emission. and we would see that this emission was tiny less than you might find in lender now in britain the. mourner's not here we can effectively know everything about the area around the legionnaires fifty four and regiment camp i could see the green zone show that there's no pollution whereas the red zone show that pollution has been detected in the lead hydrocarbons in. different times different customs. it would seem to be army has now developed an environmental

conscience. in this pilot project the restoration of one hundred eighty five is an opportunity to apply new technologies like using bacteria to get just the many chemical residues. like students seem unconcerned their teachers are weary and have countless questions on this if we don't know what happened here with a ocean and a lake let's not forget what's been burdened the earth here. from what i have seen a lot of things have been removed. by that there may be things that we haven't been told about. it's true that when we ask questions like what's been put

in the lake in the ocean in the earth many people don't trust pond sincerely these are sad. administration is scared as we all are i believe that there is waste in the leak yet. it seems there are tracks normally you've got to take out you know when people hear that comes from harl. because that fish from how. they think the fish from hell is poisoned. and many people have the idea that things are being hidden from us so as soon as you mention the word nuclear there is an immediate suspicion of lies i think that today we are moving away from this way of thinking and people are able to understand this before needed to be explained

a little more and the people were capable of getting their heads around it in the days of nuclear trials the word environment didn't exist for season lagoons were simply considered to be the most practical garbage dumps concrete scrap metal holes of airplanes or trucks were all just thrown in without so much as a second thought to all the ways that was dumped in the lake was not radioactive waste that was maybe polluting like batteries or hydrocarbons which were still in vehicles per se it's more was immediately put in the lake so in two thousand and eight in fact there had already been a first sighting of such waste so every habitation project was immediately organized by the country and the community to get rid of all this waste and all the dangerous debris and the batteries would obviously be taken out without any doubt then material like bits of concrete and it would be done in open view of the country's watch to see that everything was taken out properly and got to be seen

that life is resumed on top of the waste that the coral is regrown it mustn't badly affect the ecosystem or the environment especially if it's inert and there's no. risk involved in getting it out. there well thought out and reassuring speech from a person tasked with p.r. . the cauchy pass which is what we call the hotel area an area in deep immersion particularly there are hundreds of tons of radioactive waste which were put there in the form of drums that went all the way down to the bottom. this is a designated area and another area there was some scrap metal which could be regularly seen slightly emerged in the ocean. these are two identified zones. elsewhere we regularly see strong swirls where bits of metal emerge and wash up on shore like they have all this will be got rid of and we will find areas where we can put it the radioactive waste in the hotels will stay there will be touched as

it's not part of the rehabilitation project. and so they were buried in pits one thousand five hundred to two thousand meters deep. in total five hundred seventy tons of contaminated waste including the famous airplanes thrown into the great blue sea. of more concern for the government was a report published in january twenty seventh but at the very least signals trouble ahead. the atomic energy commission document included a computer simulation of the possible collapse of part of crown. hardly surprising considering that one hundred thirty seven blasts took place there . the principle of underground testing is simple the nuclear charges placed in

a well dug in between six hundred and one thousand meters deep after the explosion the rock becomes fused which is supposed to keep the radio. contained. the power of the explosion caused a mini earthquake which is clearly visible from the footage taken by controlled cameras. taking into account the twenty eight tests which is the northeast i'm zone of the old that is in the greatest danger. if the mass estimated to be about six hundred seventy million cubic meters in size which a collapse it would cause a fifteen to twenty meter high wave followed by a tsunami. is around one hundred kilometers away travelling at six hundred kilometers per hour the wave would reach the ayatollah in just ten minutes.

to read so close tomorrow so far from the haiti twelve hundred kilometers away. i mean people name me as. a mobile forty one. family. i'm still looking for my life. place in the world. i literally have no place to live. chewing on the bread that you bought with the last money you were able to bag. a is

get out of. there are only two possible outcomes to the situation you have a hug. you get my emmy and it's all about fancy politics the other option you die in the ring. true. stories others use in the. faces change. picture. from around the globe. up to. fifty.

choose your language. clearly we can with no infinite rules and especially some of the. treatments that you skip consumes you. choose to use that to be great to. choose the stories but in. truth you access to.

the spanish capital shaken by violence as riot police clash was demonstrators calling for an end to a drab bill that would see huge fines for taking part in unauthorized rallies. mass demonstrations take place in kiev this time with tens of thousands of pro-government protesters voicing their support for the president while more on high profile foreign politicians had to ukraine. island celebrates shaking off international lenders to become the first country to break free from a bailout program but the government warns of challenges still have. a lot of our good and delivers his annual state of the name.