‘No health risk’ from Mururoa

Press, 22 June 1983, Page 2

‘No health risk’ from Mururoa

A scientific team inspection of Mururoa Atoll would hope to prove or disprove fears about French underground nuclear tests, said the team leader, Mr Hugh Atkinson. The director of the National Radiation Laboratory, Mr Atkinson, will head a group of Pacific scientists that France has agreed will be allowed to inspect the atoll. The Prime Minister, Mr Muldoon, has said the visit will take place in about three months. “A series of rather sensational fears have been broadcast in a repetitive way over the last few years,” Mr Atkinson said. Results from monitoring stations near the atoll had convinced the laboratory that there was no health risk to Pacific Island peoples but the visit was a unique chance to study the test site itself. “This will give an opportunity to check at first-hand not just the data but the basis of those data,” he said. However, Mr Atkinson said much still depended on the quality of French data promised to the laboratory next month before the team inspection.

The group would probably spend about 12 days at Mururoa looking at aspects of nuclear testing. These would include the dumping of nuclear waste, any cracking of the atoll, and contamination of the surrounding sea. The laboratory already had a full programme in mind for scientists during their stay, said Mr Atkinson. However, a lot of the details of the visit still had to be worked out. Mr Atkinson was not disappointed by the French refusal to allow the team to inspect the atoll during a test explosion. “I do not see this as a major problem,” he said. “It would be a pity to focus attention on that particular ‘no’ because we have had so much co-operation in other aspects, even beyond what we might have expected.” Nor was he worried about the personal safety of team members when there were 2000 to 4000 French defence personnel stationed at Mururoa. “I would not for a moment dream they are going to cast us out on the beach head,” Mr Atkinson said.