France gives Tahiti site for nuclear memorial

2:57 pm on 15 November 2018

The French National Assembly has voted to give French Polynesia a building in Papeete for a memorial site of the French nuclear weapons tests.

View of the advanced recording base PEA "Denise" on Moruroa atoll, where French forces have conducted nuclear weapon tests until 1996.

Remnants of the testing infrastructure on Moruroa atoll Photo: AFP

The decision means that the site of the former command complex of the French Navy in Papeete will be made available for this new centre.

The public accounts minister Gerald Darmanin said this reflected a wish by the French Polynesian people to remember the tests.

France carried out 193 tests between 1966 and 1996.

The site is being given at no cost to French Polynesia provided it will build a memorial within five years.

Otherwise the site will revert to French ownership.

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