France hands Algeria details of nuclear tests

[maddezmom]

Source: Reuters

ALGIERS (Reuters) - France has handed Algeria details of radioactive leaks from nuclear tests in the Algerian desert in the 1960s and should have acted earlier to clean up the damage, France's ambassador in its former colony said.

Algerian commentators say French foot-dragging in acknowledging harm was caused by the tests and compensating victims has slowed efforts to improve relations between the two countries since a traumatic war for independence.

Algerian and French army veterans who visited a test site last year said local people became ill after the blasts, some of which were carried out under an agreement with the first Algerian government after independence in 1962.

France has denied any wrongdoing during its Saharan tests and says a report by International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) specialists who toured the sites in 1999 found that none of the sites was likely to expose people to levels in excess of international safety norms.



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080227/wl_nm/algeria_france_dc