20 Jun 2011

French Polynesia changes square name to mark first nuke test

4:36 am on 20 June 2011

The French Polynesian government has renamed a Papeete waterfront square to mark the first of France's 193 nuclear weapons tests in the South Pacific.

The square will now be known as 2nd of July 1966 square.

It was previously known as Place Jacques Chirac, named after the French president, who in 1995 authorised the last batch of atomic tests.

The square had been last named by a former French Polynesian president, Gaston Flosse, who flouted a French rule that bans giving a public place the name of a living person.