Jean-Marie Collin: “Paris Must Be Transparent About Its Nuclear Tests In Algeria”

The director of the French branch of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, Jean-Marie Collin, called on French authorities to be transparent regarding the file of their nuclear tests in Algeria.

This came following the announcement by the Ministry of National Defense in a statement on Sunday, November 1, regarding the launch of the second operation to decontaminate the site of the Beryl E2 test tunnel in the In southern Ekker region of Tamanrasset/6th Military Region, from radioactive waste, using national expertise and resources.

The ministry denounced in its statement “the French side’s evasion of its criminal responsibility and its refusal to provide records and maps of the burial sites for this nuclear waste,” an evasion that still constitutes “an obstacle to development in both In Ekker in Tamanrasset and Reggane in Adrar, these national talents intend to work on the total decontamination of the nuclear remains of the French colonizer in our great south and its future rehabilitation.”

This contradicts the claims made by the French Ministry of the Armed Forces and the Elysee Palace on September 8 last year, which stated that France had handed over to President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, during Emmanuel Macron’s visit to Algeria in 2022, information regarding military nuclear waste buried in the Sahara.

Mr. Collin indicated in his statement that the announcement by the Algerian Ministry of Defense reinforces the questions he raised following the French authorities’ announcement on September 8 last year, emphasizing that “France must be transparent and publish the file it supposedly handed over to President Tebboune, along with all the maps and information in its possession regarding buried waste and radiologically contaminated areas.”