Murorua Atoll may collapse

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  (MET), the Nuclear Association in French Polynesia, says the issue was detailed in a leaked report from the Ministry of Defence to the French government dated March 2010.

MET president, Roland Oldham said “We’ve been trying to raise the consciousness of the people – our own people and our government and all the rest about this really frightening thing that could happen if actually one part of Murorua would collapse.”

MET wants independent experts to be allowed to conduct a study to provide more information about the danger of the atoll collapsing.

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.

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News category: Asia Pacific.

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