“For 30 years, we were Guinea Pigs of France,” called Hinmora Morgan-Cross, a young member of Parliament from French Polynesia.
It is the South Pacific Islands, a French exotic Territia consisting of Tahiti and is famous for its white beaches, palms, and turquoise water, often romantic as a paradise.
But a painful heritage lies below the delightful image: decades atomic tests and its permanent results.
Between 1966 and 1996, the French Army exploded a 193 atomic bomb on the remote Atol of Mururoa and Fangtowfa. Thesis was tested in Ma’ohi Nui, as the region is known to its indigenous residents. The first explosion, the name of Aldebaran, took place on July 2, 1966. This marked the beginning of a long chapter that would leave deep marks on the land and its people.
In 2025, Morgoant-Cross traveled 15,000 km (over 9.320 miles) in Berlin to speak at the event in May, hosted by International Medical NGOs International doctor for prevention of nuclear warOr ipppnw. There, he gave a testimony about the long-fasting of France’s atomic testing program: the rate of high cancer, child born with deformity and with running contamination of water and soil.
Morgoant-Cross said, “So they poisoned the sea, where we got all our food,” called Mortal-Cross, who addressed the United Nations in New York. “We have been poisoned for the greatness of France, to be a state with a nuclear weapon for France.”
‘Clean Bomb’ myth
At that time, the French government deliberately assured the islands wrong about the dangers of nuclear test.
The then President Charles de Gaul prepared the French atomic bomb as “green and very clean”, suggesting that it was safe or more environmentally friendly than bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Mortal-Cross does not call it much than “French propagation”.
In fact, radioactive clouds were swept away into the vast parts of the South Pacific and even more than 1,000 kilometers from the testing site, reaching the main island of Tahiti. Often, residents of nearby islands were not informed or evacuated.
There is no apology to France
Following intense domestic and international resentment, France did not discontinue its nuclear test program until 1996. Despite the stop, the French government has never formally apologized for the damage to its foreign sectors.
During the 2021 visit to French Polynesia, President Emmanuel Macron accepted France’s role, sting, “Crime lies in the fact that we conducted the thesis tests.”
“We wouldn’t have not taken out these experiments in Crause or Brittany [in mainland France]”He said.
The United Nations and various non-governmental organizations have celebrated 26 September as International Day for the total abolition of nuclear weapons since 2014. The day is a serious reminder of the responsibility to be borne by the nuclear-host.
Nevertheless, there is a danger of suffering from victims of nuclear tests. In response, a growing generation from pre -test sites refuses to accept the silence of those in power. They are gathering across the boundaries, transmitting their concern in coordinated action.
Parliamenian Hinamoeura is one of the MorGant-Cross speakers. While visiting Berlin, she shared her family’s painful heritage: her grandmother was 30 when nuclear tests began and later developed thyroid cancer as by her mother and aunt.
Born in 1988, the Morgoant-Cross revealed that both he and his sister developed cancer, which outlines the genital toll of radioactive risk.
Cancer can destroy generations later
Experts have warned that nuclear tests have given rise to a group of cancer cases within the affected families. Coming in contact with ionization radiation can lead to genetic mutations, which may be inherited by later generations.
“The insidious nature of ionization radiation reads in its ability to influence people during generations,” says Jan Baldas, a nuclear weapon expert in the European leadership network (ELN). “It increases the risk of various cancers, especially lymphoma and leukemia.”
Another result of nuclear test is breeding loss.
Baldus told DW, “Women in contact with radiation during tests have given birth to children with congenital defects and have faced abortion.” “Thesis effect can be passed through generations, potential for infertility in women.”
For the Hinmoira Morgoant-Cross, the diagnosis of many cancer in his family was a motivational power behind his decision to enter politics.
She is now calling to provide more assistance to its fellow citizens – the state responsible for France – nuclear tests.
“We do not have medical care that we have, that we deserve, because we are 30 years old in terms of drugs. We do not have technology like medical scan.” She says. “This inspired me to really go into politics, and to demand that we deserve a better hospital, we deserve better treatment.”
Only a small fraction of affected people have a means of traveling to Paris for medical treatment, which leaves many people without access to adequate care.
The victims face a tough fight for compensation
In 2010, the French government used the law to provide compensation to the victims of nuclear tests. However, each case is assessed individual, and contenders must display a direct link below their illness and nuclear tests. The burden of evidence is not always easy.
Expert Jan Baldas describes a major obstacle.
“The victims have to prove that they were physically present at the same place when they were tested – decades later almost impossible tasks.” In addition, compensation is limited to a narrow list of officially recognized diseases. According to the global alliance ICAN (International campaign to eliminate nuclear weapons), Only 417 residents of French Polynesia received compensation between 2010 and July 2024.
For the Hinmora Morgoant-Cross, the fight is not only on gaining practical support, so about education.
In his motherland, a frequent story still depicts nuclear tests as a so -called clean andover that brings prosperity.
“For decades, we had pictures of atomic mushrooms in all the living rooms of Tahiti people because we were proud that the French decided to choose us,” she remembers. Her mission is now what she says to that “colonial mindset” and highlights the true places of tests.
Future of nuclear test: Risk or rhetoric?
France was not alone in doing broad nuclear tests. The Soviet Union, the United States, the United Kingdom and China carried out extensive explosions.
Overall, over 2,000 nuclear explosions have occurred. The result radioactive fallout not only contaminated immediate testing sites, but therefore contributed to leveling advanced radiation worldwide.
The nuclear test was holding primary in the vicinity of the wider nuclear-test-ban treatment and through international talks.
In recent years, North Korea has been the only country to conduct a search test. Nevertheless, amid growing geo -political stresses, experts warned that the revival of nuclear test is a real possibility.
This article was the original published in German.