Tahiti compensation concession

The French Polynesian President says Paris has for the first time conceded that it should compensate Tahiti’s social security agency CPS for the medical costs caused by France’s nuclear weapons tests. The agency repeatedly said that since 1995 it had paid out US$800 million ($1.14 billion) to treat 10,000 people suffering from cancer as the result of radiation from the tests. Edouard Fritch said he received a letter from the French Prime Minister, Jean Castex, admitting the demand for a reimbursement of the outlays was legitimate. The compensation question was one of several issues raised at a roundtable on the nuclear legacy held in Paris at the start of the month, attended by President Emmanuel Macron and Fritch. He said the French Polynesian delegation at the talks also raised the principle of compensation for the tests sites at Moruroa and Fangataufa, which remain French military no-go zones.