Nuclear atoll 'near collapse'

By CATHERINE FIELD and KEVIN TAYLOR

A senior scientist in France's nuclear monitoring agency has admitted that the rock of Mururoa Atoll is deteriorating because of sustained nuclear testing.

Entire sections of rock in the atoll's northeast are threatened with collapse, the daily France Soir newspaper reported.

It quoted a senior official for nuclear safety at the French Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), the country's nuclear watchdog, as saying nuclear tests had contributed to a weakening of the atoll rock.

"We are observing an acceleration of the natural, seaward progression of certain perimeter areas in the northeastern zone, as well as compression at the surface."

In plain language, the official said, "there has definitely been a weakening of the atoll rock that has been amplified by the nuclear tests."

France exploded 178 nuclear bombs between 1966 and 1996 at Mururoa and nearby Fangataufa, 137 below ground and 41 in the atmosphere.

The state of Mururoa's rock structure has been a sensitive subject for years, with the French Government continually battling accusations by environmentalists that the atoll could collapse and release radioactive debris.

As recently as 1995, the Foreign Ministry threatened to take legal action against the daily newspaper Le Monde on the grounds that it was publishing wrong information, after it printed a map purporting to show cracks and faults in the rock.

The CEA now runs press trips to the deserted site in a bid to reassure the public.

It has also dotted the atoll with seismic sensors, linked to Paris by satellite, to give early warning of a major collapse.

New Zealand Disarmament Minister Matt Robson said last night that the French admission brought it into line with the concerns first expressed by Norman Kirk's Government in 1973. But New Zealand had known about damage to the atoll since a 1998 report, he said.

The International Geomechanical Commission added strength to that assessment in mid-1999 when it reported on plutonium "hotspots" and the risk of part of the atoll collapsing, possibly causing tidal waves.

Following those reports, France set up continual monitoring, Mr Robson said.

The admission is the frankest by French authorities on the long-term effects on the atoll, said the deputy director of Victoria University's Institute for Strategic Studies, Dr Guy Wilson-Roberts.

He said it was encouraging that France was undertaking long-term monitoring and that it was now prepared to discuss the issue in public.

Greenpeace spokesman Stephen Campbell said his organisation had been saying for years that a truly independent study should be done on Mururoa.

And a Fiji-based peace group said the subsidence report was shocking but not surprising.

Stanley Simpson, editor of the Suva-based Nuclear Free and Independent Pacific Movement's Pacific News Bulletin magazine, said France should open its archives and release all reports on the testing's health and environmental effects.

The French Embassy in Wellington did not respond to a Herald request for comment.