MORUROA FILES

Online platform on exposing the toxic history of French nuclear tests in the Mao’hi Nui (French Polynesia)

France conducted 193 nuclear weapons tests between 1966 and 1996, at Moruroa and Fangataufa atolls in French Polynesia/Te Ao Mā’ohi. Between 1966 and 1974, 41 nuclear tests were conducted in the atmosphere, and between 1975 and 1996, 152 underground tests were detonated at the two test sites. The fallout from the atmospheric tests alone exposed the local population, workers at the test sites and French soldiers to significant levels of ionizing radiation.

INTERPRT, Disclose and Princeton University’s Program on Science & Global Security (SGS) have developed an interactive platform to shed new light on French nuclear tests conducted in French Polynesia. The platform, for the first time, reconstructs key atmospheric nuclear tests, their fallouts and potential radiation exposure of local populations. Its source material is drawn from exhaustive analysis of around two thousand pages of recently declassified French Ministry of Defense documents, historical maps, photographs, testimonies, interviews with victims, veterans, state officials and civil society organizations in both French Polynesia and in France.

The platform’s core consists of investigations into three important atmospheric tests: Aldebaran (2 July 1966), Encelade (12 June 1971) and Centaure (17 July 1974) using 3D models, interactive maps, animations, and photographs that takes the user to the scenes of complex nuclear events and their aftermath.