25 Mar 2009

Greenpeace says French compensation too late

9:55 am on 25 March 2009

Greenpeace says a French compensation deal for people who suffered health problems from nuclear testing in the Pacific has come too late.

The environmental group says many of the military and civilian staff involved have already died.

France carried out nuclear tests from the 1960s right up until 1996.

Former Greenpeace campaign leader, Stephanie Mills, says survivors will also find it hard to get a payout.

"One critique of it suggested that perhaps only have a dozen people would be eligible because they've set the level of exposure so high at 50 millisieverts a year, that very few people would at least have been measured at being exposed at that level. International recommendations are that the public are exposed to one illiesievert a year, so they've set the barrier very high for people to get any money."

Stephanie Mills.

The compensation package is worth ten million Euros.