Nuclear fears over French Polynesia atoll collapse via ABC Radio Australia

A leaked report has raised new fears that Murorua Atoll, the site of French nuclear testing in the Pacific, is in danger of collapsing.

Murorua e Tatou says the issue was detailed in a leaked report from the Ministry of Defence to the French government dated March 2010.

The Nuclear Association’s president, Roland Oldham, told Radio Australia’s Pacific Beat program that radioactive material could be released into the Pacific Ocean if the atoll were to collapse.

“Just in that little area there is over maybe twelve underground tests in that area and we have to remember that France have done altogether 193 nuclear test explosions in Murorua,” he said.

“In the soil of Muroroa, if something happens there is about 150 holes containing very dangerous radioactivity.”

The association says if the atoll were to collapse it could also trigger a 15 metre tsunami.

‘Hidden information’

Mr Oldham is concerned the government didn’t make the report available to the public earlier.

“This information was very discrete, I mean we only got this information now,” he said.

“I mean the report is from 2010, why wait so long?

Continue reading at Nuclear fears over French Polynesia atoll collapse