A French court has heard the cases of nine nuclear tests veterans, who claim compensation for radiation exposure in Algeria and French Polynesia between 1962 and 1988.
The court in Bordeaux was told by a magistrate assessing the claims that five of the nine claims should be thrown out because the men concerned ran an only negligible risk to suffer poor health.
The veterans organisation says this is intolerable because victims should be automatically recognised without having to go through the courts.
A lawyer for the organisation says the defence ministry has failed to provide proof that the contamination risk was negligible.
She also says the assessing magistrate has based his position on measurements that were out of date.
The court will make its ruling at a date yet to be determined.
So far, 17 out of 931 compensation cases put to the French government have been accepted.
