24 Apr 2007

French presidential candidates reveal differing attitudes to impacts of nuclear tests

1:53 pm on 24 April 2007

Details have emerged about the nuclear policies of the rival candidates in the run-off election for the French presidency.

The French nuclear test veterans' association, AVEN, has published on its website, letters it received earlier this month signed by Nicolas Sarkozy and Segolene Royal.

Ben Lowings reports from London:

"Segolene Royal says if she becomes president the Socialists will make the legal assumption that the nuclear tests in French Polynesia made the site workers ill. The Socialist candidate says test site workers would have the right to a pension. But Nicolas Sarkozy says there is still no systematic or direct link between the veterans' illnesses and nuclear tests. Mr Sarkozy says if he becomes president, the existing official investigation will continue into nuclear safety. He says officials will continue to collect information on the possible health consequences, with applications for pensions being considered on a case by case basis."