A feature story on France's controversial nuclear legacy in French Polynesia from the testing program on Mururoa Atoll for the "Force de Frappe." By Andrew Revkin, May 1989, Discover Magazine
Jay Quade, a veteran geologist at the University of Arizona, gave a remarkable talk at the American Quaternary Association meeting in Santa Fe this year proposing that an Anthropocene Epoch is way too small a designation for what we're doing to the Earth Ssytem #AMQUA2016 This is posted with Dr. Quade's permission for Dot Earth.
His views are faetured in my article making sense of the #Anthropocene, in the new magazine of that name: http://j.mp/revkinanthropocene
Links:
Quade home page
http://www.geo.arizona.edu/Quade
AMQUA 2016 meeting
http://amqua2016santafe.com
Anthropocene posts on the Dot Earth blog of Andrew Revkin:
http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/?s=anthropocene+epoch
Jay Quade, a veteran geologist at the University of Arizona, gave a remarkable talk at the American Quaternary Association meeting in Santa Fe this year proposing that an Anthropocene Epoch is way too small a designation for what we're doing to the Earth Ssytem #AMQUA2016 This is posted with Dr. Quade's permission for Dot Earth.
His views are faetured in my article making sense of the #Anthropocene, in the new magazine of that name: http://j.mp/revkinanthropocene
Links:
Quade home page
http://www.geo.arizona.edu/Quade
AMQUA 2016 meeting
http://amqua2016santafe.com
Anthropocene posts on the Dot Earth blog of Andrew Revkin:
http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/?s=anthropocene+epoch
While the biosphere is always in flux, there have been notable instances of dramatic changes in the biosphere, the most extreme examples being five mass extinction events. In this resource, Cynthia Stokes Brown defines mass extinction, discusses that K-T extinction in detail, describes the other four major extinctions in Earth history, and ends by describing some of the proposed causes of mass extinction.
Register to explore the whole course here: https://school.bighistoryproject.com/bhplive?WT.mc_id=Slideshare12202017
252 CHAPTER 8Geologic Time (232 chapter 7Fire.docxeugeniadean34240
252 CHAPTER 8 Geologic Time
(
232
chapter 7
Fires Within: Igneous Activity
figure
7.31
Seattle, Washington, with Mount Rainier in the background. (Photo by Ken Straiton/Corbis)
)
Until recently the dominant view of Western societies was that humans possess the wherewithal to subdue volcanoes and other types of catastrophic natural hazards. Today it is apparent that volcanoes are not only very destructive but unpredictable as well. With this awareness, a new attitude is developing—"How do we live with volcanoes?"
Volcanic Hazards
Volcanoes produce a wide variety of potential hazards that can kill people and wildlife, as well as destroy property (figure 7.32). Perhaps the greatest threats to life are pyroclastic flows. These hot mixtures of gas, ash, and pumice that sometimes exceed 800°C race down the flanks of volcanoes, giving people little chance to escape.
Lahars, which can occur even when a volcano is quiet, are perhaps the next most dangerous volcanic hazard (figure 7.33). These mixtures of volcanic debris and water can flow for tens of kilometers down steep volcanic slopes at speeds that may exceed 100 kilometers (60 miles) per hour. Lahars pose a potential threat to many communities downstream from glacier-clad volcanoes such as Mount Rainier. Other potentially destructive mass-wasting events include the rapid collapse of the volcano's summit or flank.
Other obvious hazards include explosive eruptions that can endanger people and property hundreds of miles from a
Eruption cloud
Prevailing wind
Ash fall
2009 steam and ash cloud
(
figure
7.33
Soufriere Hills volcano on the Caribbean island of Montserrat has been active since 1995. A pyroclastic flow destroyed the airport and the capital city, Plymouth. About two thirds of the population have left the island. (NASA Photo)
) (
Lava dome collapse
Pyroclastic flow
) (
Fumaroles
Lava flow
Lahar (mud or debris flow)
figure
7.3
2
Simplified drawing showing a wide variety of natural hazards associated with volcanoes. (After U.S. Geological Survey)
)
Acid rain
Pyroclastic flow
Jf^- Eruption column
Bombs Collapse of flank Lava dome
(
The Chapter in Review
233
figure
7.34
Monitoring South Sister Volcano, Cascade Range, Oregon. This geologist is measuring the degree of infla
tion of the volcano's surface for potential eruptive activity.
)
volcano. During the past 15 years at least 80 commercial jets have been damaged by inadvertently flying into clouds of volcanic ash (Figure 7.33). One of these was a near crash that occurred in 1989 when a Boeing 747, with more than 300 passengers aboard, encountered an ash cloud from Alaska's Redoubt volcano. All four engines stalled after they became clogged with ash. Fortunately, the engines were restarted at the last minute and the aircraft managed to land safely in Anchorage.
Monitoring Volcanic Activity
Today a number of volcano-monitoring techniques are employed, with most of them aimed at detec.
Editorial – July 2010
Greetings all,
This month’s newsletter is devoted to recent studies in coastal oceanic systems.
To start with, Le Traon is introducing this newsletter telling us about the SNOCO initiative.
Scientific articles about recent studies in coastal oceanic systems are then displayed as follows: First, Ménesguen et al. are telling
us about Ulva mass accumulations on Brittany beaches and remedies found to solve this problem. Then, Ardhuin presents his
work about wave hindcasting and forecasting at Previmer within the European project “Integrated Ocean waves for Geophysical
and other Applications”. Third, Faucher et al. provide a description of a coupled Atmosphere-Ocean-Ice forecast system for the
Gulf of St Lawrence in Canada, which has been installed in experimental mode at the Canadian Meteorological Centre. Finally,
Marchesiello et al. are talking about regional ocean forecasting and downscaling strategy at IRD for coastal and submesoscale
phenomena. They have developed a downscaling strategy based on the Regional Ocean Modeling System and produced a new
demonstrator with data assimilation in the Chile oceanic area.
The next October 2010 newsletter will display papers about the Marginal Seas in the MyOcean project.
We wish you a pleasant summer!
We offer you this guide to shed light on the question you are probably asking yourself: «What is the use of oceanography?».
By tracing the history of marine science, we explain how oceanographers have been able to put the oceans at the heart of their work and demonstrate the crucial role they play in the planetary balance.
Convinced that the prerequisite for any action is a better understanding of the issues by science, we hope that this guide to oceanography will help to crystalise on the issues and challenges posed by science. We hope that it will help lay the foundation for buil- ding a common and shared ocean culture.
Hello I am presenting before you a presentation on ozone layer depletion which includes the mechanism of it and even the detailed information about how they occur.Hope it will be helpful to the students in understanding the ozone layer depletion.
Thank You,
Tirthankar Majumder
MTech
Dept. of earth and environmental science
NIT- Durgapur
Andrew Revkin's 1994 profile of the masterful luthier Linda Manzer. Blending spruce, sweat and sawdust, Linda Manzer builds guitars that
dazzle.
Photos by Peter Sibbald https://petersibbald.visura.co
Linda Manzer:
https://manzer.com
Andy Revkin:
http://j.mp/revkinlinks
In 1985, my editor, Scott DeGarmo, asked me to write a cover story on the future of the automobile - when the future was the Ford Taurus. It's now kind of a museum artifact and I hope you enjoy it and offer feedback.
This is the core of a webinar Andy Revkin conducted with folks at Columbia Climate School to explore how scientists, scholars and others seeking to craft a better human journey can make the most of Twitter even as Elon Musk's purchase disrupts things. We also talked about alternatives, none of which Revkin sees as remotely competing with the capacities Twitter offers for a long time. (It took a decade of relentless programming, regulatory and other work to build the Twitter we know.)
Subscribe to Revkin's Sustain What newsletter and webcasts to engage and drive the conversation further:
https://revkin.substack.com/subscribe #socialmedia #sustainability #climate
More Related Content
Similar to Plutonium in Paradise (France's South Pacific Nuclear Legacy
While the biosphere is always in flux, there have been notable instances of dramatic changes in the biosphere, the most extreme examples being five mass extinction events. In this resource, Cynthia Stokes Brown defines mass extinction, discusses that K-T extinction in detail, describes the other four major extinctions in Earth history, and ends by describing some of the proposed causes of mass extinction.
Register to explore the whole course here: https://school.bighistoryproject.com/bhplive?WT.mc_id=Slideshare12202017
252 CHAPTER 8Geologic Time (232 chapter 7Fire.docxeugeniadean34240
252 CHAPTER 8 Geologic Time
(
232
chapter 7
Fires Within: Igneous Activity
figure
7.31
Seattle, Washington, with Mount Rainier in the background. (Photo by Ken Straiton/Corbis)
)
Until recently the dominant view of Western societies was that humans possess the wherewithal to subdue volcanoes and other types of catastrophic natural hazards. Today it is apparent that volcanoes are not only very destructive but unpredictable as well. With this awareness, a new attitude is developing—"How do we live with volcanoes?"
Volcanic Hazards
Volcanoes produce a wide variety of potential hazards that can kill people and wildlife, as well as destroy property (figure 7.32). Perhaps the greatest threats to life are pyroclastic flows. These hot mixtures of gas, ash, and pumice that sometimes exceed 800°C race down the flanks of volcanoes, giving people little chance to escape.
Lahars, which can occur even when a volcano is quiet, are perhaps the next most dangerous volcanic hazard (figure 7.33). These mixtures of volcanic debris and water can flow for tens of kilometers down steep volcanic slopes at speeds that may exceed 100 kilometers (60 miles) per hour. Lahars pose a potential threat to many communities downstream from glacier-clad volcanoes such as Mount Rainier. Other potentially destructive mass-wasting events include the rapid collapse of the volcano's summit or flank.
Other obvious hazards include explosive eruptions that can endanger people and property hundreds of miles from a
Eruption cloud
Prevailing wind
Ash fall
2009 steam and ash cloud
(
figure
7.33
Soufriere Hills volcano on the Caribbean island of Montserrat has been active since 1995. A pyroclastic flow destroyed the airport and the capital city, Plymouth. About two thirds of the population have left the island. (NASA Photo)
) (
Lava dome collapse
Pyroclastic flow
) (
Fumaroles
Lava flow
Lahar (mud or debris flow)
figure
7.3
2
Simplified drawing showing a wide variety of natural hazards associated with volcanoes. (After U.S. Geological Survey)
)
Acid rain
Pyroclastic flow
Jf^- Eruption column
Bombs Collapse of flank Lava dome
(
The Chapter in Review
233
figure
7.34
Monitoring South Sister Volcano, Cascade Range, Oregon. This geologist is measuring the degree of infla
tion of the volcano's surface for potential eruptive activity.
)
volcano. During the past 15 years at least 80 commercial jets have been damaged by inadvertently flying into clouds of volcanic ash (Figure 7.33). One of these was a near crash that occurred in 1989 when a Boeing 747, with more than 300 passengers aboard, encountered an ash cloud from Alaska's Redoubt volcano. All four engines stalled after they became clogged with ash. Fortunately, the engines were restarted at the last minute and the aircraft managed to land safely in Anchorage.
Monitoring Volcanic Activity
Today a number of volcano-monitoring techniques are employed, with most of them aimed at detec.
Editorial – July 2010
Greetings all,
This month’s newsletter is devoted to recent studies in coastal oceanic systems.
To start with, Le Traon is introducing this newsletter telling us about the SNOCO initiative.
Scientific articles about recent studies in coastal oceanic systems are then displayed as follows: First, Ménesguen et al. are telling
us about Ulva mass accumulations on Brittany beaches and remedies found to solve this problem. Then, Ardhuin presents his
work about wave hindcasting and forecasting at Previmer within the European project “Integrated Ocean waves for Geophysical
and other Applications”. Third, Faucher et al. provide a description of a coupled Atmosphere-Ocean-Ice forecast system for the
Gulf of St Lawrence in Canada, which has been installed in experimental mode at the Canadian Meteorological Centre. Finally,
Marchesiello et al. are talking about regional ocean forecasting and downscaling strategy at IRD for coastal and submesoscale
phenomena. They have developed a downscaling strategy based on the Regional Ocean Modeling System and produced a new
demonstrator with data assimilation in the Chile oceanic area.
The next October 2010 newsletter will display papers about the Marginal Seas in the MyOcean project.
We wish you a pleasant summer!
We offer you this guide to shed light on the question you are probably asking yourself: «What is the use of oceanography?».
By tracing the history of marine science, we explain how oceanographers have been able to put the oceans at the heart of their work and demonstrate the crucial role they play in the planetary balance.
Convinced that the prerequisite for any action is a better understanding of the issues by science, we hope that this guide to oceanography will help to crystalise on the issues and challenges posed by science. We hope that it will help lay the foundation for buil- ding a common and shared ocean culture.
Hello I am presenting before you a presentation on ozone layer depletion which includes the mechanism of it and even the detailed information about how they occur.Hope it will be helpful to the students in understanding the ozone layer depletion.
Thank You,
Tirthankar Majumder
MTech
Dept. of earth and environmental science
NIT- Durgapur
Similar to Plutonium in Paradise (France's South Pacific Nuclear Legacy (18)
Andrew Revkin's 1994 profile of the masterful luthier Linda Manzer. Blending spruce, sweat and sawdust, Linda Manzer builds guitars that
dazzle.
Photos by Peter Sibbald https://petersibbald.visura.co
Linda Manzer:
https://manzer.com
Andy Revkin:
http://j.mp/revkinlinks
In 1985, my editor, Scott DeGarmo, asked me to write a cover story on the future of the automobile - when the future was the Ford Taurus. It's now kind of a museum artifact and I hope you enjoy it and offer feedback.
This is the core of a webinar Andy Revkin conducted with folks at Columbia Climate School to explore how scientists, scholars and others seeking to craft a better human journey can make the most of Twitter even as Elon Musk's purchase disrupts things. We also talked about alternatives, none of which Revkin sees as remotely competing with the capacities Twitter offers for a long time. (It took a decade of relentless programming, regulatory and other work to build the Twitter we know.)
Subscribe to Revkin's Sustain What newsletter and webcasts to engage and drive the conversation further:
https://revkin.substack.com/subscribe #socialmedia #sustainability #climate
This is a fantastic case study and overview showing how businesses can prepare for the hazards around them to cut the scope of impacts - preventing a natural hazard from becoming an unnatural disaster.
It centers on the experience and work of Parsons Manufacturing, a company that suffered a direct hit from an EF-4 tornado in 2004 but avoided any deaths.
Learn more at the company website:
https://www.parsonscompany.com/about/
A #COP26 presentation by Zainab Usman of Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and Katie Auth of Energy for Development, building on this paper: September 28, 2021
REFRAMING CLIMATE JUSTICE FOR DEVELOPMENT: SIX PRINCIPLES FOR SUPPORTING INCLUSIVE AND EQUITABLE ENERGY TRANSITIONS IN LOW-EMITTING ENERGY-POOR AFRICAN COUNTRIES
By Mimi Alemayehou, Katie Auth, Murefu Barasa, Morgan Bazilian, Brad Handler, Uzo Iweala, Todd Moss, Rose Mutiso, Zainab Usman
Advancing inclusive and equitable energy transitions is one of this century’s most vital global challenges, and one in which development finance will play a crucial role. References to justice and equity are widespread in international climate policy, and are increasingly being used by development organizations to guide their own work, including support for energy transitions.
But prevailing definitions of climate justice rarely fully capture the priorities, challenges and perspectives of low-emitting energy-poor countries, the vast majority of which are in sub-Saharan Africa. When applied to development policy, this gap risks prioritizing near-term emissions reductions over broader support for economic development and energy transformation, with comparatively little climate benefit. This could severely hinder poverty alleviation, development, and climate resilience — the very opposite of justice. We need energy transitions that are truly ‘just and inclusive.’ What does this mean for development funders and financiers, and how should it drive their approach to supporting energy transitions in the lowest-income countries?
Rene Dubos was a masterful biologist, Pulitzer-winning essayist and humanist. Read the story behind this essay in Andy Revkin's homage to Dubos here: http://j.mp/despairingoptimist
This is a summary of the three-week international survey of the vaquita refuge in heavily fished waters of the northern Gulf of California of the coast of Mexico's Baja California state. It shows what can be accomplished with a fresh effort in the fall of 2021.
The expedition included scientists and conservationists from Mexico, the United States and Canada.
This chapter on climate change as news, by Andrew Revkin is from "Climate Change: What It Means for Us, Our Children, and Our Grandchildren" - edited by Joseph F. C. DiMento and Pamela Doughman
MIT Press 2007, updated edition, 2014
https://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=view_citation&hl=en&user=xsxkAlEAAAAJ&citation_for_view=xsxkAlEAAAAJ:edDO8Oi4QzsC
Alice Bell's new book on the history of climate change knowledge and inaction is fantastic. Some have missed what is NOT in the CIA's 1974 assessment of climate change and security risk. There's no mention of global warming from carbon dioxide. Here's a Guardian excerpt from Alice's book: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/jul/05/sixty-years-of-climate-change-warnings-the-signs-that-were-missed-and-ignored
Here's the original CIA document without text recognition: https://www.hsdl.org/?abstract&did=725433
A deep early look at how supercomputer security became a prime concern of the Reagan administration - with climate science in the mix.
More context in Andrew Revkin's prize-winning March 1985 Science Digest article on nuclear winter:
https://www.slideshare.net/Revkin/hard-facts-about-nuclear-winter-1985
And Revkin's investigative report on the vanishing of Vladimir Alexandrov, a high-profile Soviet atmospheric scientist who'd become a fan of American cars and cuisine while visiting NCAR, a mountainside supercomputer lab in Colorado:
http://j.mp/alexandrovmissing
Here are emails showing exchanges between Dr. Will Happer, a senior Trump Administration science and security adviser, and the Heartland Institute -- which has long sought to cast doubt on the enormous body of science pointing to rising dangers from human emissions of climate-warming gases.
The emails were released under a Freedom of Information Act request by the Environmental Defense Fund: http://blogs.edf.org/climate411/files/2019/03/Climate-Review-FOIA-CEQ.pdf
Here's an Associated Press story:
https://www.apnews.com/4ec9affd55a345d582a4cc810686137e
EDF provided this copy to Andrew Revkin.
Here's an excerpt from a 2017 interview Revkin did with Happer for ProPublica: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSpL5dziylo
A Physicist and Possible Adviser to Trump Describes His Love of Science, and CO2
https://www.propublica.org/article/a-physicist-and-possible-adviser-to-trump-describes-his-love-of-science-co2
More on Happer in National Geographic:
Does the U.S. need a ‘presidential climate security committee’?
A Trump adviser who sees rising CO2 as a good thing wants a panel to review government findings that climate change is a security threat.... https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2019/02/trump-presidential-climate-security-committee/
This was the document leaked to the press this week ahead of a White House meeting assessing whether President Trump should create a committee to assess conclusions about links between global warming and national security.
Some Globo coverage in 1990 from the trial of the Alves family members and associates charged with the assassination of Chico Mendes in December 1988, including an interview with Andrew Revkin, who'd just published The Burning Season, a book chronicling Mendes's life, death and legacy. More: http://bit.ly/revkinmendes
An Island Magazine feature by Andy Revkin provided an intimate look at changes in a Polynesian family and village as modern life intruded in the 1980s.
This cover story on climate change by Andrew Revkin was published in Discover Magazine in October, 1988. For more on the article visit this Dot Earth post: 1988-2008: Climate Then and Now http://nyti.ms/WIvLbH via @dotearth
Make sure to click to the last page, which was the back-cover advertisement that month - for cigarettes.
Shows things can change, sometimes slowly.
And read Andy's reflection on lessons learned in 30 years of climate coverage:
http://j.mp/revkin30yearsclimate
Enhancing LPG Use During Pregnancya collaboration between KEM Health Research Center, Sri Ramachanda University, and University of California, Berkeley
An explanatory presentation provided to ProPublica.org
Lewis Reznik, who spent his adult life as a dentist in Westchester County, New York, had a very different adolescence - on the run between Nazis and Russian troops in Poland as the Holocaust unfolded. This is is remarkable memoir. Lew died in 2013.
I edited the manuscript and helped Lew publish the book.
Please purchase a copy at j.mp/boysholocaust
Share and discuss the book on Facebook: j.mp/boysholocaustFB
Context:
"Royal Dutch Shell in Nigeria: Where Do Responsibilities End?" Journal of Business Ethics, 2015
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10551-014-2142-7
Shell's plans for Nigeria (SPDC subsidiary), 2013: http://www.shell.com/media/news-and-media-releases/2013/spdc-sets-out-its-future-intent-for-nigeria.html
Business & Human Rights Resource Center on two landmark lawsuits:
https://business-humanrights.org/en/shell-lawsuit-re-nigeria-kiobel-wiwa
More from Earth Institute of Columbia University (20)
हम आग्रह करते हैं कि जो भी सत्ता में आए, वह संविधान का पालन करे, उसकी रक्षा करे और उसे बनाए रखे।" प्रस्ताव में कुल तीन प्रमुख हस्तक्षेप और उनके तंत्र भी प्रस्तुत किए गए। पहला हस्तक्षेप स्वतंत्र मीडिया को प्रोत्साहित करके, वास्तविकता पर आधारित काउंटर नैरेटिव का निर्माण करके और सत्तारूढ़ सरकार द्वारा नियोजित मनोवैज्ञानिक हेरफेर की रणनीति का मुकाबला करके लोगों द्वारा निर्धारित कथा को बनाए रखना और उस पर कार्यकरना था।
01062024_First India Newspaper Jaipur.pdfFIRST INDIA
Find Latest India News and Breaking News these days from India on Politics, Business, Entertainment, Technology, Sports, Lifestyle and Coronavirus News in India and the world over that you can't miss. For real time update Visit our social media handle. Read First India NewsPaper in your morning replace. Visit First India.
CLICK:- https://firstindia.co.in/
#First_India_NewsPaper
role of women and girls in various terror groupssadiakorobi2
Women have three distinct types of involvement: direct involvement in terrorist acts; enabling of others to commit such acts; and facilitating the disengagement of others from violent or extremist groups.
‘वोटर्स विल मस्ट प्रीवेल’ (मतदाताओं को जीतना होगा) अभियान द्वारा जारी हेल्पलाइन नंबर, 4 जून को सुबह 7 बजे से दोपहर 12 बजे तक मतगणना प्रक्रिया में कहीं भी किसी भी तरह के उल्लंघन की रिपोर्ट करने के लिए खुला रहेगा।
In a May 9, 2024 paper, Juri Opitz from the University of Zurich, along with Shira Wein and Nathan Schneider form Georgetown University, discussed the importance of linguistic expertise in natural language processing (NLP) in an era dominated by large language models (LLMs).
The authors explained that while machine translation (MT) previously relied heavily on linguists, the landscape has shifted. “Linguistics is no longer front and center in the way we build NLP systems,” they said. With the emergence of LLMs, which can generate fluent text without the need for specialized modules to handle grammar or semantic coherence, the need for linguistic expertise in NLP is being questioned.
31052024_First India Newspaper Jaipur.pdfFIRST INDIA
Find Latest India News and Breaking News these days from India on Politics, Business, Entertainment, Technology, Sports, Lifestyle and Coronavirus News in India and the world over that you can't miss. For real time update Visit our social media handle. Read First India NewsPaper in your morning replace. Visit First India.
CLICK:- https://firstindia.co.in/
#First_India_NewsPaper
03062024_First India Newspaper Jaipur.pdfFIRST INDIA
Find Latest India News and Breaking News these days from India on Politics, Business, Entertainment, Technology, Sports, Lifestyle and Coronavirus News in India and the world over that you can't miss. For real time update Visit our social media handle. Read First India NewsPaper in your morning replace. Visit First India.
CLICK:- https://firstindia.co.in/
#First_India_NewsPaper
Plutonium in Paradise (France's South Pacific Nuclear Legacy
1.
2.
3. A photograph of a nuclear test hangs alongside a family portrait in the home of Uraora Tetuanui, a retired construction worker.
Like many Tahitians, Tetuanui loves the bomb and the high wages the testing program has provided.
The standard line, as given by a French
Embassy official, is, "The underground
experiments are not dangerous for the
public of Polynesia." Indeed, at a 1986
press conference French President
Franc;ois Mitterrand went so far as to
say that "the rate of radioactivity on
Mururoa is lower than in Paris."
0
pinions about Mururoa vary so
widely because there are very
few facts to go by. Mururoa
is a wispy coral garland,
roughly 18 miles long by 6
miles wide, that sits atop an extinct
volcano rising more than 13,300 feet
from the seafloor. The land barely
breaks the surface. It lies in the
Tuamotu Archipelago, a chain of 76
sparsely inhabited, low-lying atolls
running north and east of Tahiti and
its mountainous neighbors. In the local
dialect mururoa means "great secret,"
and the name has become sadly appro-
priate. France has maintained a veil of
secrecy around activities there ever
since the atoll was turned into the
blandly named Center for Pacific Ex-
perimentation in 1962.
France was the last Western country
to accede to world opinion and move
its testing underground-fully 11 years
after the United States, the Soviet Un-
ion, and Great Britain signed the Lim-
ited Test Ban Treaty in 1963-and it
has consistently fought efforts of others
to learn the details of its testing project.
In 1985 the government went so far as
to have French agents in New Zealand
40 DISCOVE~ • MAY • 1989
bomb the Rainbow Warrior- a ship
owned by the environmental group
Greenpeace- that was preparing to
embark for Mururoa. A photographer
was killed in that bombing, and the in-
cident created an international uproar.
Rainbow Warrior II is slated to be
launched soon, with a visit to Mururoa
high on its list of missions.
Only three scientific teams have been
allowed to study Mururoa. The first, in
1982, was led by Haroun Tazieff, a
French volcanologist; he was allowed to
stay for only three days. Tazieff noted
that portions of the atoll appeared to be
sinking but could find no evidence of
a radiation hazard. A year later a three-
nation team- from Australia, New
Zealand, and Papua New Guinea- was
allowed to spend a grand total of five
days on Mururoa; it came away with
similar conclusions.
The most recent visit was by re-
nowned underwater explorer Jacques-
Yves Cousteau, who came to Mururoa
for six days in June 1987. Like his
predecessors, Cousteau had limited
time and resources with which to con-
duct research and was restricted to cer-
tain regions of the atoll. He was not per-
mitted to visit parts of Mururoa that are
alleged to be severely contaminated
with radioactive material.
One such area first came to light in
November 1981, when the union repre-
senting French civilian technicians on
Mururoa issued a report claiming that
workers faced serious health risks. In
1966 and 1971, the union said, two
"safety tests" of bombs, in which the
devices were intentionally damaged to
see if they could explode accidentally,
resulted in the scattering of some 20 to
40 pounds of plutonium across the un-
inhabited northern rim of the atoll. The
area was covered with a layer of asphalt
to stabilize the contaminated sand and
coral, but that was ripped away by a se-
ries of cyclones in 1981.
The union also reported that danger-
ous radioactive material had been scat-
tered across the atoll in 1979 when a
concrete bunker used for a test acciden-
tally exploded. And in 1981, it main-
tained, a heap of radioactive waste-
contaminated scrap metal, metal
drums, and the like-had been washed
out to sea in a storm.
On their second day at Mururoa,
Cousteau and his crew witnessed an
underground explosion. Until 1981 all
nuclear tests took place in holes drilled
through the barrier reef fringing the la-
goon and into the volcanic basalt foun-
dation of the atoll. Since then the
bombs have been exploded in holes
sunk by drilling rigs moored in the la-
goon. There were two reasons for the
change: first, there was little room left
on the uninhabited portion of the atoll;
second, chunks of the reef sometimes
broke loose after tests.
As Cousteau's team filmed from an
observation tower across the lagoon,
every one of the 3,000 French military
personnel and Tahitian laborers who
live on the atoll climbed atop a series
of 20-foot-high platforms to sit out the
4. test well above sea level, just in case a
wave was generated by the explosion
or some subsequent geologic distur-
bance. Loudspeakers blared a count-
down. Suddenly, three miles away, an
expallSe of blue water was transformed
into what looked like boiling milk.
The surface of the lagoon then levitated
in a plume of spray nearly 200 feet
high, and a spreading shock wave shiv-
ered the sea surface and shook the
tower.
Within a day Cousteau's divers
fanned out over the test site to collect
water and sediment samples and take
readings of radiation levels. All they
found was an unusually high level in
plankton of iodine 131, a substance that
in humans can cause cancer of the thy-
roid. The official explanation-that the
radiation accidentally leaked during a
check of a borehole-was hardly en-
couraging. Still, there was no other ele-
vation in radioactivity over the test site.
When the divers explored the coral
wall ofthe outer reef, however, the bad
news became evident. They saw enor-
mous, recently formed fissures running
down as far as they could dive. Great
chunks of fossilized coral had broken
free from the submarine cliff and
lodged in the cracks. Albert Falco, the
pilot of Cousteau's mini-sub, said that
one fissure plunged to a depth of at
least 591 feet. These observations are
consistent with French government re-
ports of large horizontal fissures that
run for hundreds of yards in some
places around the perimeter of the atoll.
A French official, who requests ano-
nymity, says that fractures in the coral
reef don't necessarily mean there is a
problem. 'The coral is very external,"
he says. "[Cracks) may be created just
by the waves. The tests are deep down
in the basalt." But, he adds, fissures in
the underlying basalt would be cause
for concern. "If there were damage to
the basalt, there would obviously be the
potential for radioactivity to affect the
atoll itself."
Despite the limits imposed on his
team, the conclusions Cousteau issued
last fall were remarkably definitive-
and positive. "We found no trace ofany
of the dangerous radioactive elements
produced by nuclear explosions," he
said. "We can ensure that, at least for
the near future, the tests pose no dan-
ger to Polynesian populations. How-
ever, when looking at the ruins of coral
accumulated here, no one can guaran-
tee for hundreds of years the future of
Mururoa."
Many feel that this ambiguous tone
lent an air of respectability to the
French program. Indeed, to the
consternation of environmentalists,
La Depeche, the main Tahitian daily
newspaper, immediately proclaimed
that Cousteau had given Mururoa a
clean bill of health. 'The world's most
famous protector of the environ-
ment ... " the paper said, "has con-
cluded that the tests made there are to-
tally harmless.... This categoric nyet
will no doubt carry enormous weight
among those who for years have main-
tained an opposition to the tests and
wish to boot France out of this region
of the world.... Cousteau has taken all
the samples he wanted, he has dived
wherever he wished and has made all
the measurements he deemed neces-
sary. His 'green light' should therefore
silence the voices of the often partial
and dishonest individuals who criticize
the ... tests."
Cousteau was subsequently blasted
by Danielsson in an open letter to the
press. ·"For once you are out of your
depth," Danielsson wrote. His main
complaint was that Cousteau, knowing
that the test explosions were almost al-
ways carried out at depths between
2,000 and 3,900 feet, limited his explo-
ration of the atoll structure to the top
500 feet. Even at the relatively shallow
depths reached by Cousteau's divers,
Danielsson said, there was clear evi-
dence that the underpinnings of
Mururoa had suffered damage-to the
Geolhermal...t
Rock fractured by a nuclear test may allow warmed seawater to seep through the island faster than under natural conditions.
A computer model shows radioactive material from underground blasts leaking into Mururoa's lagoon in as little as SO years.
DISCOVER • MAY • 1989 41
5. point where leakage may occur from
the underground test sites.
"This was an exploratory mission,"
responds Bertrand Charrier, research
director for the Cousteau Society. "It
was not total or complete. It is difficult
to get authorization to stay a long time
at this place. Our conclusion is to push
the government to give more informa-
tion to the scientific population."
The potential for radioactive leaks at
Mururoa is supported by the computer
models of Manfred Hochstein and Mi-
chael O'Sullivan, researchers at the
University of Auckland in New Zea-
land, who recently reanalyzed data col-
lected by the three-nation team that vis-
ited Mururoa in 1983. Their work
shows that the fracturing caused by
dozens of explosions has made the rock
much more permeable than the French
contend. According to the computer
models, radioactive substances may
leach to the surface in tens of years
rather than the 1,000 years that the
French government estimates.
The data came from temperature
readings taken by the French over a pe-
riod of 500 days in a 2,000-foot-deep
hole, near the site of a nuclear explo-
sion. In that time the temperature at the
bottom of the hole dropped 18 degrees.
Normally the temperature at that depth
is maintained by natural geothermal
heat radiating up through the rock. The
heat also produces a sort of conveyor
belt for water that leaches into the atoll
foundation. The warmed seawater rises
through the basalt, seeps through the
limestone laid down by coral in millen-
nia past, and enters the lagoon.
Hochstein and O'Sullivan theorized
that such a temperature drop could be
caused only by cold seawater leaching
through the rock at an increased rate.
Their model· closely matched the ob-
served temperature change, they
found, when they had seawater leach-
ing through the rock at a rate that could
be possible only if a vertical "chimney"
of fractured rock had been formed
above the spot where the bomb had ex-
ploded. "Our model," says O'Sullivan,
"suggests that there can be movement
from a bomb site up to the lagoon in
ten to fifty years."
French reports indicate that rock can
be fractured up to 1,300 feet from the
bomb site; they also confirm that water
quickly fills the fractured zone. "Dur-
ing the first tenth of a second," one
government report explains, "the ex-
plosion creates a spherical cavity con-
taining several thousand tons of vitri-
fied lava.... Within a few minutes this
system cools down, causing the lava to
solidify and lowering the gas pressure
in the cavity. The roof of the cavity,
having been fractured by the explosion,
is no longer held up by the gas pressure
After running out of sites on Mururoa itself, the French moved to the center of the
lagoon, where drilling rigs bore holes thousands of feet deep for nuclear tests.
42 DISCOVER • MAY • 1989
and collapses. . . . [It) forms a sort of
'chimney' filled with rubble.... The
voids in the rubble rapidly fill up with
water, and within a few days to a few
weeks the terrain can be said to be per-
manently stabilized." Despite the ap-
parent contradiction in the last
sentence-with water rapidly filling the
voids, it's hard to see how the terrain
can be "permanently stabilized"-
officials insist that the fracturing never
extends up into the coral.
Ironically, the medical consequences
of any radioactive release, past or pres-
ent, may never be known. Throughout
French Polynesia one hears numerous
claims about cancers that have been
caused by radiation from Muru-
roa, but such anecdotal reports are use-
less to epidemiologists seeking a link
between an environmental factor and a
rise in the incidence of disease.
Danielsson claims there is evidence of
a rise in rates of thyroid cancers, brain
tumors, and leukemia-all of which
can be radiation induced-but he ad-
mits that the statistics are flimsy. "The
French authorities," he says, "haven't
published any health statistics since the
first bomb was exploded. 'It's a military
secret,' they say. Then, when you con-
front them with a rise in cancers, they
ask, 'Where are your figures?' "
Danielsson believes the government's
attitude is summed up in its refusal to
allow France's National Radiation
Laboratory, whose purpose is to mea-
sure and assess the effects of radioac-
tive levels in the environment, to con-
duct studies in French Polynesia.
The three-nation team that visited
Mururoa in 1983 concluded that health
statistics for Tahiti are so limited as to
be useless for any investigation of
heightened rates of cancers that might
be due to the nuclear testing. A registry
for tracking cancer cases was not estab-
lished until1980. And only since 1983
has French Polynesia had a death certi-
fication system that requires the cause
of death and contributing factors to be
recorded. Finally, the population of
188,000 is so small that it would take
an enormous dose of radiation to cause
a statistically significant jump in cancer
rates. Much about Mururoa, and now
Fangataufa, it seems, will remain a
great secret for a long time to come. 0
Senior editor Andrew C. Revkin recently
visited French Polynesia.