France and nuclear weapons

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France
Nuclear program start date:
First nuclear weapon test:	February 13, 1960
First fusion weapon test:
Last nuclear test:
Largest yield test:
Total tests:	210
Peak stockpile:
Current stockpile:	350
Maximum missile range:
NPT signatory:	Yes (1968, one of five recognized powers)

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France was the fourth country to test an independently developed nuclear weapon in 1960, under the government of Charles de Gaulle. It is one of the five "Nuclear Weapons States" (NWS) under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. France is currently thought to retain a weapons stockpile of around 350 operational nuclear warheads.

France had been heavily involved in nuclear research before World War II through the work of the Joliot-Curies. This was discontinued after the war because of the instability of the Fourth Republic and the lack of finance available[1]. However, in the 1950's a civil nuclear research program was started, a byproduct of which would be plutonium. In 1956 a secret Committee for the Military Applications of Atomic Energy was formed and a development program for delivery vehicles started. With the return of Charles de Gaulle to the presidency of France in 1958 the final decisions to build a bomb were taken, and a successful test took place in 1960. Since then France has developed and maintained its own nuclear deterrent.

There were 210 French nuclear tests from 1960 until 1996. 17 of them were done in the Algerian Sahara between 1960 and 1966, starting in the middle of the Algerian War (1954-1962). 193 were carried out in French Polynesia.

1 First tests in the Sahara (1960-1966)
2 Pacific experiments center (1966-1996)
- 2.1 Atmospheric tests at Mururoa & Fangataufa
- 2.2 Underground tests at Mururoa & Fangataufa
3 Simulation programme (1996-2010)
4 Anti nuclear tests protests
5 Veteran's associations and symposium
6 Current nuclear doctrine and strategy
7 References
8 See also
9 External links

[edit] First tests in the Sahara (1960-1966)

Further information: Gerboise Bleue

The first French atmospheric nuclear test, called "Gerboise bleue" ("blue jerboa") took place on 13 February 1960 in the Algerian Sahara, in the middle of the Algerian War (1954-62). The explosion took place at 40 km from the military base of Reggane, which is the last town on the Tanezrouft Track heading south across the Sahara to Mali, and 700 km south of Colomb-Bechar ^[1]. The General Pierre-Marie Gallois was named le père de la bombe A ("A-bomb's father"). Three others atmospheric tests were carried out from 1st April 1960 to 25 April 1961. These four atmospheric tests were carried out at with a forward base at Hammoudia near Reggane. Military, workers and the nomadic Touareg population of the region assisted to these explosions, without any protection. At most, a shower after each test ^[2].

The 13 underground essais were carried out at In Ecker, 150 km north of Tamanrasset, from 7 November 1961 to 16 February 1966.

The third atomic bomb, half as powerful as Hiroshima, exploded on 27 December 1960, provoking protests from Japan, USSR, Egypt, Morocco, Nigeria and Ghana ^[3]. After the independence of Algeria on 5 July 1962, following the 19 March Evian agreements, the French military moved to In Ecker, also in the Algerian Sahara. The Evian agreements included an article which stated that "Algeria concede... to France the use of certain air bases, terrains, sites and military installations which are necessary to it [France]."

An accident happenned on May 1, 1962, during the "Béril" test, four times more powerful than Hiroshima. The Minister of Armed Forces, Pierre Messmer, and the Minister of Research, Gaston Palewski, were present. Officials, soldiers and Algerian workers escaped as they could, often without wearing any protection. Palewski died in 1984 of leukemia, which he always has attributed to the Béril accident. In 2006, Bruno Barillot, specialist of nuclear tests, measured on the site 93 microsieverts by hour of gamma ray, equivalent to 1% of the official admissible yearly dose ^[2].

[edit] Pacific experiments center (1966-1996)

A total of 193 nuclear tests were carried out in Polynesia from 1966 to 1996.

[edit] Atmospheric tests at Mururoa & Fangataufa

Further information: Canopus (nuclear test)

The French began development of the hydrogen bomb and built a new test range on the French Polynesian islands of Mururoa and Fangataufa. On 24 August 1968 France succeeded in detonating a thermonuclear weapon - codenamed Canopus - over Fangataufa. A fission device ignited a lithium 6 deuteride secondary inside a jacket of highly enriched uranium to create a 2.6 megaton blast which left the whole atoll uninhabitable because of radioactive contamination.

[edit] Underground tests at Mururoa & Fangataufa

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[edit] Simulation programme (1996-2010)

[edit] Anti nuclear tests protests

By 1968 only France and China were exploding nuclear weapons in the open air and the contamination caused by the H Bomb blast led to a global protest movement against further French atmospheric tests ^[4].

From the early 1960s New Zealand peace groups CND and the Peace Media had been organising nationwide anti nuclear campaigns in protest of atmospheric testing in French Polynesia. These included two large national petitions presented to the New Zealand government which led to a joint New Zealand and Australian Government action to take France to the International Court of Justice (1972). [2]

In 1972, Greenpeace and an amalgan of New Zealand peace groups managed to delay nuclear tests by several weeks by trespassing with a ship in the testing zone. During the time, the skipper, David McTaggart, was beaten and severely injured by members of the French military.

In 1973 the New Zealand Peace Media organised an international frotilla of protest yachts including the Fri, Spirit of Peace, Boy Roel, Magic Island and the Tanmure to sail into the test exclusion zone.[3]

In 1973, New Zealand Prime Minister Norman Kirk as a symbolic act of protest sent two navy frigates, HMNZS Canterbury and Otago, to Mururoa.[4]

In 1985 the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior was bombed and sunk by the French DGSE in Auckland, New Zealand, as it prepared for another protest of nuclear testing in French military zones. One crew member, Fernando Pereira of Portugal, photographer, drowned on the sinking ship while attempting to recover his photographic equipment. Two members of DGSE were captured and sentenced, but eventually repatriated to France in a controversial affair.

French president Jacques Chirac's decision to run a nuclear test series at Mururoa in 1995, just one year before the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty was to be signed, caused worldwide protest, including an embargo of French wine. These tests were meant to provide the nation with enough data to improve further nuclear technology without needing additional series of tests.^[5]

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[edit] Veteran's associations and symposium

An association gathering veterans of nuclear tests (AVEN, Association des vétérans des essais nucléaires) was created in July 2002. Along with the Polynesian NGO Moruroa e tatou, the AVEN announced on 27 November 2002 that it would depose a complaint against X (unknown) for unvoluntary homicide and putting someone's life in danger. On 7 June 2003, for the first time, the military court of Tours granted an invalidity pension to a veteran of the Sahara tests. According to a poll made by the AVEN with its members, only 12% have declared being in good health. ^[2]. An international symposium on the consequences of test carried out in Algeria took place on 13 and 14 February 2007, under the official oversight of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika.

150,000 civilians — without taking into account the local population — are estimated to have been on the location of nuclear tests, in Algeria or in French Polynesia ^[2].

[edit] Current nuclear doctrine and strategy

In 2006, French president Jacques Chirac, noted that France would be willing to use nuclear weapons against a state attacking France via terrorist means. He noted that the French nuclear forces had been configured for this option. ^[6]