Transcript
A legal expert in Tahiti established last month that 10 of the 12 compensation cases before the court would be rejected.
The reason is a clause quietly introduced in a French finance act late last year which defines the minimum level of exposure of an area for a claimant to be eligible for compensation.
The head of the test veterans organisation Association 193, Father Auguste Uebe Carlson, has told local Radio 1 this is a serious setback.
"Now we have gone back five years. The so-called suppression of negligible risk is a lie and that has to be said clearly."
France's reluctance to repair the damage caused by the weapons tests had been festering until a decade ago when Paris for the first time acknowledged that the tests had caused illnesses.
But compensation claims under the a new law, which was named after the then defence minister Herve Morin, were mostly thrown out because the criteria were very restrictive.
To give the law some meaning the onus of proof was to be done away with and to give claimants a chance to win reparations.
Yet, to comply with the French health act, a minimum exposure level was slipped back into a finance measure.
For Father Uebe-Carlson of the Association 193, this change means that compensation claims will now fail.
"The majority of cases are rejected with this famous amendment of Lana Tetuanui."
Lana Tetuanui led a commission which contributed to the revised compensation law.
When she last year appeared on television after meeting the French prime minister, she couldn't give a figure on how many more cases would succeed.
She was hopeful for broader recognition.
“I'm also confident that the important issue of diseases passed down through the generations is also being raised with the recommendations in our report."
Now, the sentiments about possible compensation have changed and her involvement with the commission is being criticised.
The French Polynesian government has however rallied to her defence, saying it regrets that some organisations call into question the law adopted by both the French National Assembly and Senate.
Mrs Tetuanui has issued a statement, saying the French government was being destabilised by the possibility of a flood of claims by anyone suffering from cancer.
She drew a link to smoking.
She said if people know the risk posed by tobacco it is not up to the French state to compensate smokers who get cancer in French Polynesia or who have been to French Polynesia.
The Greens leader in Tahiti Jacky Bryant told local Radio 1 he was aghast at her stance.
“This resembles talk that is almost diabolical - and the health minister could have explained to her that she should stop saying silly things because it is grotesque."
About 150,000 personnel served the French military's nuclear testing programme which ran over almost four decades in first Algeria and then French Polynesia.
It's not known how many people suffer from cancer as a result of radiation exposure.
Father Maxime Chan of the Association 193 says trying to save money may be a motivation for the French government to hold back with compensation.
"I think the authorities of the French state have to be told there is nothing to fear. There is such great pressure on people. They are extremely hesitant to ask to be compensated."
The claimants still left keep fighting for their cause although both Paris and the current French Polynesian government want to close the chapter of the nuclear testing.
Plans exist for a memorial site in Tahiti.
In the revised autonomy statute adopted last month, Paris officially acknowledged French Polynesia's role in helping France develop its nuclear deterrent.
The text only passed when it was clarified that French Polynesia's role wasn't voluntary.
