FRANCE has finally allowed inspectors from the European Commission to visit its nuclear test site at Mururoa atoll in the Pacific, a month after it carried out the first of a series of bomb tests there. But it refused to let them visit the test site at nearby Fangataufa atoll before exploding a second test there last Monday.
The European Union鈥檚 Euratom treaty requires the Commission to check safety precautions at nuclear sites before 鈥渆xperiments鈥� such as the bomb tests take place, but France exploded the first test before the Commission could visit.
Last week the environment commissioner, Ritt Bjerregaard, complained that France had still not given the Commission all the data it had requested, including results from the first test. The Commission also asked France to supply the rest of the data 鈥渂efore the next test鈥�.
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