Nuclear expert to be honoured in French Polynesia

5:17 am on 19 August 2022

The office of the French Polynesian president says it wants to honour the memory of Bruno Barrillot who was the head of French Polynesia's body looking at the aftermath of France's nuclear weapons tests.

The office says it wants to mark the sixth anniversary of Barrillot's return from France to French Polynesia.

Bruno Barillot, was the head of French Polynesia's body looking at the aftermath of France's nuclear weapons tests.

Photo: Facebook

He died less than a year later, shortly before his 77th birthday.

In 2013, Barrillot was sacked by the newly-elected government led by Gaston Flosse, which objected to funding his agency.

His dismissal was widely condemned because he was considered to be the most knowledgeable person on the French tests.

The test veterans' organisation Moruroa e tatou said he was pursued by a vengeful hatred that did no justice to the government.

In 1984, Barrillot, a French-born priest, founded the NGO Arms Observatory and after the French sinking of the Greenpeace vessel Rainbow Warrior in 1985, he focused on the damage caused by the nuclear tests in the Pacific