There has been a mixed reaction to the French Senate again amending the law to compensate French Polynesian victims of France's nuclear weapons tests.
50 years after the first nuclear test, and 20 years after the last. The French Polynesia atoll of Mururoa is still largely a no-go zone. Photo: AFP
The Senate again tightened the compensation criteria after France's supreme court last month found compensation claims lodged before a 2018 law change were not subject to the new terms.
The nuclear test veterans of Association 193 have told news site Tahiti-infos they were deeply disappointed and sad.
Its leader said for every step forward an amendment was being made to counter it.
However, a French Polynesian member of the French Senate Lana Tetuanui said she could not oppose the latest amendment because the tightening of the law was in part the result of a commission she chaired.
The law changes were prompted by the low number of applications being deemed acceptable for compensation for illnesses caused by radiation from the weapons tests.
While tightening the compensation criteria, the French government has reversed its plan to scrap the National Commission for Monitoring the Consequences of Nuclear Tests.
That was planned as part of administrative changes and cost-cutting measures, which target dozens of agencies.
Between 1966 to 1996, France carried out 193 nuclear weapons tests in French Polynesia.
