The French nuclear test veterans' association says the government should set up a compensation fund.
Widows of five veterans who claim their husbands were affected by bomb fallout in French Polynesia want to take their cases to the Court of Appeal in Paris.
Ben Lowings reports from London.
"A legal commission this month ruled the claims inadmissable because the irradiation happened before the relevant law came into force in 1977. The veteran's association, AVEN, says the commission's ruling did not allow for an examination of the circumstances of the irradiation. AVEN says even so, the state prosecutor did not contest the fact of the irradiation. The association says a law which enabled compensation for workers exposed to asbestos did not enable the same for victims of nuclear tests."
