From mosa@netcom.com Fri Jul 14 15:30:41 1995 Date: Fri, 14 Jul 1995 15:29:16 -0700 From: mosa@netcom.com (Michele Lord) To: dave@sgi.sgi.com Newsgroups: soc.culture.native,alt.native From: reyburn@peg.pegasus.oz.au Subject: Mururoa tests not safe Sender: indig.rights.oz@gnosys.svle.ma.us Date: Mon, 10 Jul 1995 08:54:41 GMT Lines: 87 "ANY STATEMENT THAT THE TEST IS SAFE IS, IN MY VIEW, NOT A SCIENTIFIC STATEMENT; IT IS A POLITICAL STATEMENT." Dr Peter Wills, physicist. Dominion Newspaper, Wellington, New Zealand/Aotearoa of friday, 7 July 1995. French scientific evidence 'incomprehensible". Scientific tests that French authorities said showed no radiation leakage from nuclear testing at Mururoa were incomprehensible, Auckland University physicist Peter Wills said yesterday. French authorities issued two reports earlier this week on radioactivity in French Polynesia in an attempt to calm fears about the resumption of nuclear tests in the area. The reports include a year's research into the radiology and biology of the Polynesian environment. Land and sea flora were studied. Eight international laboratories, including New Zealand's Radiation Laboratory, took part in the research, which was based on samples taken throughout the region. Presenting the previously restricted reports to local news media, the high commissioner for French Polynesia, Paul Ronciere, said "artificial radioactivity in Polynesia resulting from atmospheric nuclear tests, stopped since 1974, was less than the natural radioactivity contained in the islands' basaltic base and in the coral of the atolls." French tests since 1974 were all underground. General Michel Boileau, director of France's Nuclear Test Centre, said " the percentage of radionucleids in French Polynesia was less than that of France and Norther Europe." French authorities have consistently maintained that their nuclear tests present no danger to the South Pacific environment. Dr Wills said yesterday the situation surrounding the testing was so complex, "no testing would be enough testing to find out what's going on". "You don't know where the radioactivity is, you don't know exactly where it's likely to be getting out or at what rate; and in the end you don't know and can't say definitively what the environmental effects will be," Dr Wills said. The geological structure of the atoll had not been inspected in detail to find out where the cracks and fissures were and the testing had not been done long enough. He rejected claims by French President Jacques Chirac that nuclear testing was safe. "Any statement that the test is safe is, in my view, not a scientific statement; it is a political statement." However, National Radiation Laboratory director Andrew McEwan said yesterday the tests showed the people living at Mururoa were not at risk. Dr McEwan said samples were taken of fish, shellfish, lobsters and coconut milk and of comparison fish in another part of French Polynesia. Scientists looked for levels of artificial radionucleids, including caesium 137. "The levels in the fish samples were pretty much about what one would expect form global fallout," Dr McEwan said. "They were very low and it does indicate that there's no significant contribution from the atoll itself. In other words, leakage is not a problem." "That doesn't mean to say it will not be in the future ... but predictions of what could possibly come out indicate that it will never be sufficient to be a health concern to people of Mururoa." (Story goes on to talk about Greenpeace and Rainbow Warrior, news now superseded with the reported ramming and violent boarding of the peace ship today (10 July 1995) by deranged French speaking souls a long way from home.)