Antinuclear

From the Archives: The end of French nuclear testing in South Pacific  From 1960, amid great controversy, France carried out 193 nuclear tests in French Polynesia in the South Pacific. On this day in 1996 President Jacques Chirac announced testing had come to end. SMH, By Matthew Gledhill & David Lague
29 January 2019, First published in the Sydney Morning Herald on January 21, 1996Mr Jacques Chirac has announced a definitive end to French nuclear testing in the South Pacific, at the same time promising to play an “active and determined role for disarmament in the world”.

The French President told his nation in a TV broadcast on Monday that he would begin diplomatic moves to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) banning nuclear trials world-wide, later this year.

The tests, concluding with the sixth and largest blast at Fangataufa on Saturday, finished four months short of the original scheduled date.

Mr Chirac had predicted eight nuclear trials when the resumption of testing was announced on June 13 last year, but is believed to have curtailed the program under international pressure.

The Australian Prime Minister, Mr Keating, welcomed an end to the testing, but said President Chirac should not have overturned the previous French Government’s moratorium on testing.

……….Almost directly following the President’s vow to open a new chapter in French nuclear defence, his Government said it would sign the Raratonga Treaty for a nuclear-free Pacific in coming weeks…….https://www.smh.com.au/world/oceania/from-the-archives-the-end-of-french-nuclear-testing-in-south-pacific-20190127-p50tyj.html