Proposal to Expand the Scope of Victims of French Nuclear Tests in Algeria

French MPs proposed significant amendments to a bill concerning the recognition and compensation of victims of French nuclear tests.

These amendments directly address tests conducted in the Algerian Sahara by expanding the geographical scope of potential compensation for areas beyond the test sites and their immediate administrative perimeter.

This amendment, proposed by the Ecologists Party in the French National Assembly and submitted on January 17, 2025, was checked out by Echorouk, aiming to complement a clause in the draft that was registered in the lower house on December 2, 2025.

The amendment lacks a clause stipulating that compensation should cover “all areas where radioactive fallout from French nuclear tests has been recorded or where scientific evidence suggests exposure to such fallout.” This represents a shift in the current approach, which was based exclusively on official test sites and operational centres.

The explanatory memorandum accompanying the amendment states that the current legislative framework adopts a restrictive geographical approach, which fails to consider scientific data confirming that radioactive fallout is not limited to detonation points but can extend to wider areas, depending on the climatic, atmospheric, and topographical conditions associated with each nuclear test.

The drafters of the amendment explicitly referred to the nuclear tests conducted in Algeria, asserting that several studies and historical research have highlighted the presence of radioactive fallout that may have affected areas outside the scope defined in the current legal text. According to them, this has led to the exclusion of affected groups from benefiting from compensation mechanisms.

The amendment clarified that expanding the scope of the program does not constitute an automatic acknowledgement of pollution or a prior legal admission of liability. Rather, it aims solely to enable the competent authorities to examine cases based on proven or probable scientific data, in line with the evolution of scientific knowledge and to achieve greater fairness and credibility.

The amendment also stipulates a financial mechanism to offset any additional costs that may arise from expanding the scope of beneficiaries, through the introduction of an additional tax on tobacco levies, as stipulated by French tax legislation.

This amendment comes as part of the ongoing debate on a draft before the National Defence and Armed Forces Committee of the French National Assembly, aiming to reorganise the compensation system for victims of French nuclear tests in Algeria and French Polynesia.

In its original form, the draft maintains the provisions in force since 2010 concerning Algeria, specifying the periods and areas designated for nuclear testing at the Reggane and In Ekker centres and their surrounding areas, without explicitly expanding these boundaries beyond them, unlike the proposed amendment.

Both the draft and its amendments are still under parliamentary review, pending final approval, which is contingent upon the outcome of discussions within the relevant committees and the plenary sessions of the French National Assembly.