‘French soldiers used as nuclear guinea pigs’

PARIS - The French military used soldiers to test the effects of nuclear radiation on humans during an atom bomb test in the 1960s, the daily Le Parisien reported Tuesday, citing what it called a secret army report prepared in 1998.

The object of the experiment was “to study the physiological and psychological effects on man produced by an atomic weapon”, the original report states.

It goes on to say that a unit of French soldiers was ordered to carry out a patrol on “a position struck by a nuclear explosion”.

Forty minutes after the nuclear explosion in the Algerian Sahara, a foot patrol approached to within 700 metres of ground zero. One hour after the test, a patrol riding in four-wheeled vehicles came to within 275 metres.

Many of the men in the patrols later fell ill with cancer and other illnesses apparently tied to the radiation exposure.

The experiment was carried out April 25, 1961, during France’s last above ground atomic test in the Sahara Desert. The only form of protection the soldiers wore was a gas mask.

The report concluded that the soldiers seemed “capable of combat, to the degree their morale has not been affected too much”. It also recommended replacing the gas masks with “basic anti-dust masks” to improve communications.

Contacted by the daily, Defence Minister Herve Morin said he had not seen the secret report, but declared that the radiation the men were exposed to “was very weak”.

According to figures by the defence ministry, about 150,000 soldiers and civilians took part in 210 French nuclear tests in the Sahara and Polynesia between 1960 and 1996.