1 00:00:00,280 --> 00:00:02,000 Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of I 2 00:00:02,080 --> 00:00:11,039 Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Hello and Welcome to This Day in History Class, 3 00:00:11,080 --> 00:00:13,720 Speaker 1: a show that shines a light on the ups and 4 00:00:13,960 --> 00:00:19,160 Speaker 1: downs of everyday history. I'm Gaye Bluisier, and in this episode, 5 00:00:19,480 --> 00:00:23,200 Speaker 1: we're looking at the early days of France's nuclear program, 6 00:00:23,239 --> 00:00:25,959 Speaker 1: as well as the lasting impact it's had on the 7 00:00:26,040 --> 00:00:36,520 Speaker 1: unlucky region subjected to it. The day was February nineteen 8 00:00:36,640 --> 00:00:41,640 Speaker 1: sixty France detonated its first atomic bomb to become the 9 00:00:41,640 --> 00:00:47,040 Speaker 1: world's fourth nuclear power. The plutonium filled bomb was exploded 10 00:00:47,080 --> 00:00:50,680 Speaker 1: about sixty miles south of the Regain Oasis in the 11 00:00:50,720 --> 00:00:54,279 Speaker 1: Sahara Desert of Algeria, which was a French colony at 12 00:00:54,280 --> 00:00:58,800 Speaker 1: the time. It was code named Jubois Blue, which means 13 00:00:58,960 --> 00:01:03,640 Speaker 1: blue jereboa in English. A jereboa is a small rodent 14 00:01:03,720 --> 00:01:07,080 Speaker 1: that lives in the Sahara, so essentially the bomb was 15 00:01:07,160 --> 00:01:11,000 Speaker 1: called blue desert rat. It may have been named for 16 00:01:11,040 --> 00:01:15,320 Speaker 1: a tiny creature, but with an explosive yield of seventy kilotons, 17 00:01:15,600 --> 00:01:18,959 Speaker 1: the bomb was roughly four times more powerful than the 18 00:01:19,000 --> 00:01:23,039 Speaker 1: one the US had dropped on Hiroshima. Early in the 19 00:01:23,080 --> 00:01:28,000 Speaker 1: morning of February, military scientists gathered at the test site 20 00:01:28,160 --> 00:01:32,800 Speaker 1: near Algeria's border with Mauritania. It was a desolate region 21 00:01:32,959 --> 00:01:37,560 Speaker 1: called tan is Roofed, which means land of thirst. There 22 00:01:37,600 --> 00:01:40,000 Speaker 1: the bomb was placed to top a three hundred and 23 00:01:40,080 --> 00:01:45,280 Speaker 1: thirty foot tower and detonated by remote at seven am. 24 00:01:45,319 --> 00:01:48,880 Speaker 1: The explosion was a technical success, and no one was 25 00:01:48,960 --> 00:01:53,520 Speaker 1: more pleased than French President Charles de Gaul. He issued 26 00:01:53,560 --> 00:01:57,920 Speaker 1: an announcement thirty minutes after detonation, hailing the event as 27 00:01:58,000 --> 00:02:01,360 Speaker 1: a show of French strength and engineity, one that would 28 00:02:01,400 --> 00:02:04,600 Speaker 1: ensure the country had equal standing with the other nuclear 29 00:02:04,640 --> 00:02:08,160 Speaker 1: powers of the United States, the Soviet Union, and the 30 00:02:08,280 --> 00:02:13,360 Speaker 1: United Kingdom. Shortly after his public announcement, De Gall sent 31 00:02:13,440 --> 00:02:17,960 Speaker 1: a three sentenced cable to Pierre Guillauma, the Minister of 32 00:02:18,000 --> 00:02:23,519 Speaker 1: Atomic Energy. The message read simply quote Hurrah for France. 33 00:02:24,080 --> 00:02:28,000 Speaker 1: As of the morning, France is stronger and prouder. From 34 00:02:28,000 --> 00:02:31,000 Speaker 1: the bottom of my heart, I thank you and those 35 00:02:31,040 --> 00:02:36,280 Speaker 1: who for France have pulled off this magnificent success. De 36 00:02:36,440 --> 00:02:40,240 Speaker 1: Gall couldn't have been happier. But on the ground, still 37 00:02:40,320 --> 00:02:44,200 Speaker 1: beneath the shadow of a blooming mushroom cloud, the mood 38 00:02:44,320 --> 00:02:49,000 Speaker 1: was a bit more tense, more than six thousand French engineers, 39 00:02:49,120 --> 00:02:53,400 Speaker 1: soldiers and researchers had worked on the project, alongside thirty 40 00:02:53,440 --> 00:02:58,959 Speaker 1: five hundred Algerian laborers. One of the participants, Michel Verget, 41 00:02:59,400 --> 00:03:02,480 Speaker 1: recounted what happened in the moment of the blast that morning. 42 00:03:03,000 --> 00:03:06,720 Speaker 1: He said, quote, I was wearing shorts. We were made 43 00:03:06,760 --> 00:03:09,800 Speaker 1: to lie face down on the ground, eyes closed and 44 00:03:09,919 --> 00:03:14,279 Speaker 1: arms folded, and not watched the flash. But immediately afterwards 45 00:03:14,440 --> 00:03:16,840 Speaker 1: we had to get up with an apparatus around our 46 00:03:16,880 --> 00:03:21,560 Speaker 1: necks and measure and photographed the impact. One thing he 47 00:03:21,680 --> 00:03:26,320 Speaker 1: noticed right away was how the blast had transformed the landscape. 48 00:03:27,000 --> 00:03:31,320 Speaker 1: The extreme heat it released had baked the nearby sand, 49 00:03:31,520 --> 00:03:36,320 Speaker 1: turning it into blackened shards of class The detonation on 50 00:03:36,480 --> 00:03:40,880 Speaker 1: February was the first in a series of four atmospheric 51 00:03:40,960 --> 00:03:45,400 Speaker 1: nuclear tests conducted in the Land of Thirst. After the 52 00:03:45,520 --> 00:03:50,200 Speaker 1: fourth test, France changed tactics and began testing underground at 53 00:03:50,240 --> 00:03:54,000 Speaker 1: a different site in the Algerian desert. The country conducted 54 00:03:54,040 --> 00:03:58,360 Speaker 1: an additional thirteen nuclear tests at the underground site before 55 00:03:58,400 --> 00:04:02,920 Speaker 1: switching places again, this time to French Polynesian atolls in 56 00:04:02,960 --> 00:04:08,120 Speaker 1: the South Pacific. In total, France exploded approximately two hundred 57 00:04:08,120 --> 00:04:13,000 Speaker 1: and ten nuclear devices between nineteen sixty and nineteen ninety six. 58 00:04:13,760 --> 00:04:17,320 Speaker 1: The vast majority were detonated in the remote atolls, but 59 00:04:17,440 --> 00:04:20,599 Speaker 1: the first seventeen were triggered right in the heart of 60 00:04:20,600 --> 00:04:26,880 Speaker 1: Algeria's desert. According to General Charles Iira, the location of 61 00:04:26,920 --> 00:04:30,680 Speaker 1: the Blue Jerboa blast had been chosen due to quote 62 00:04:30,960 --> 00:04:36,320 Speaker 1: the total absence of all signs of life in the area. Apparently, 63 00:04:36,600 --> 00:04:40,080 Speaker 1: their search for signs of life didn't extend to even 64 00:04:40,120 --> 00:04:43,359 Speaker 1: a few dozen kilometers away, or else they would have 65 00:04:43,400 --> 00:04:46,080 Speaker 1: found the six thousand or so residents of the town 66 00:04:46,120 --> 00:04:49,600 Speaker 1: of Regaine who just had a nuclear bomb detonated in 67 00:04:49,640 --> 00:04:54,159 Speaker 1: their own backyard. A spokesman for the Armed Forces Ministry 68 00:04:54,480 --> 00:04:59,720 Speaker 1: said that initial observations detected no radioactive fallout on inhabited 69 00:04:59,760 --> 00:05:03,239 Speaker 1: read Jan's, but that didn't match the reports of non 70 00:05:03,360 --> 00:05:07,400 Speaker 1: state sources, which detected nuclear fallout from the bomb as 71 00:05:07,480 --> 00:05:13,000 Speaker 1: far away as Senegal, Ivory Coast, Brickina, Fossio and Sudan. 72 00:05:14,080 --> 00:05:17,880 Speaker 1: For decades, the French government maintained that its nuclear tests 73 00:05:17,920 --> 00:05:21,400 Speaker 1: had posed no danger to civilians or to those involved 74 00:05:21,440 --> 00:05:26,479 Speaker 1: in the project. However, in a French newspaper obtained a 75 00:05:26,520 --> 00:05:31,600 Speaker 1: confidential military report that proved just the opposite. The document 76 00:05:31,680 --> 00:05:35,000 Speaker 1: showed that soldiers had been used as test subjects to 77 00:05:35,080 --> 00:05:39,159 Speaker 1: study the effects of radiation on human health. According to 78 00:05:39,200 --> 00:05:44,080 Speaker 1: the report, a nineteen sixty one experiment sent military personnel 79 00:05:44,160 --> 00:05:47,400 Speaker 1: to within a few hundred meters of the epicenter of 80 00:05:47,400 --> 00:05:52,200 Speaker 1: a nuclear blast less than an hour after detonation. It 81 00:05:52,279 --> 00:05:55,640 Speaker 1: took decades to learn the results of that test, but 82 00:05:55,720 --> 00:05:58,560 Speaker 1: in two thousand and eight, a survey conducted by a 83 00:05:58,600 --> 00:06:03,800 Speaker 1: French Veterans Associate sation finally supplied the answers. Thirty five 84 00:06:03,920 --> 00:06:07,080 Speaker 1: per cent of the French nuclear test veterans who were 85 00:06:07,120 --> 00:06:10,880 Speaker 1: pulled had one or more types of cancer, and one 86 00:06:10,920 --> 00:06:15,479 Speaker 1: in five had become infertile. The Algerian residence of the 87 00:06:15,560 --> 00:06:20,120 Speaker 1: region suffered as well. Oblivious to the danger, they collected 88 00:06:20,160 --> 00:06:22,880 Speaker 1: scrap metal from the blast that had been buried and 89 00:06:22,920 --> 00:06:27,320 Speaker 1: then uncovered by desert winds. They turned that scrap into 90 00:06:27,400 --> 00:06:31,800 Speaker 1: jewelry tools and kitchen utensils, things they handled in their 91 00:06:31,800 --> 00:06:35,920 Speaker 1: homes on a daily basis. As a result, between twenty 92 00:06:35,960 --> 00:06:39,839 Speaker 1: seven thousand to sixty thousand people from communities near the 93 00:06:39,880 --> 00:06:44,320 Speaker 1: test sites were affected. The large disparity between those numbers 94 00:06:44,600 --> 00:06:48,400 Speaker 1: relates to who's reporting them. The higher number is the 95 00:06:48,440 --> 00:06:53,360 Speaker 1: Algerian estimate and the lower is the French. Radiation from 96 00:06:53,360 --> 00:06:57,400 Speaker 1: the seventeen nuclear tests held in Algeria also led to 97 00:06:57,560 --> 00:07:02,480 Speaker 1: environmental degradation, and a decade since the blasts, the region's 98 00:07:02,520 --> 00:07:07,839 Speaker 1: biodiversity has declined, with many reptiles and birds disappearing altogether. 99 00:07:09,040 --> 00:07:14,720 Speaker 1: The last of France's nuclear tests was conducted on January 100 00:07:15,400 --> 00:07:19,760 Speaker 1: in French Polynesia. Later that year, the country became one 101 00:07:19,800 --> 00:07:24,080 Speaker 1: of the first to sign the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Band Treaty. 102 00:07:24,160 --> 00:07:28,320 Speaker 1: To its credit, France cemented its commitment to nuclear disarmament 103 00:07:28,560 --> 00:07:32,720 Speaker 1: by closing and dismantling all of its test sites, which 104 00:07:32,760 --> 00:07:35,800 Speaker 1: is something that no other nuclear power has done at 105 00:07:35,800 --> 00:07:40,480 Speaker 1: the time of recording. In the French parliament enacted a 106 00:07:40,560 --> 00:07:44,160 Speaker 1: law that finally acknowledged the impact of its nuclear testing 107 00:07:44,200 --> 00:07:49,360 Speaker 1: program and established a compensation plan for victims of nuclear radiation, 108 00:07:49,840 --> 00:07:54,000 Speaker 1: including military personnel as well as residents of French Polynesia 109 00:07:54,200 --> 00:07:58,560 Speaker 1: and Algeria. The laws by no means a perfect solution. 110 00:07:59,160 --> 00:08:02,720 Speaker 1: For one thing, it requires claimants to have been residents 111 00:08:02,720 --> 00:08:06,160 Speaker 1: of the region while the tests were taking place, even 112 00:08:06,240 --> 00:08:11,280 Speaker 1: though dangerous radiation lingers long after the blast itself. Because 113 00:08:11,320 --> 00:08:14,840 Speaker 1: of this stipulation, as well as the exclusion of certain 114 00:08:14,880 --> 00:08:17,920 Speaker 1: types of cancer, the law hasn't been as helpful to 115 00:08:18,000 --> 00:08:21,680 Speaker 1: Algerian victims as it should be. In fact, as of 116 00:08:21,720 --> 00:08:25,920 Speaker 1: twenty twenty one, only one of five hundred and forty 117 00:08:25,960 --> 00:08:29,480 Speaker 1: five cases where money has been paid was to an Algerian. 118 00:08:30,240 --> 00:08:32,920 Speaker 1: All of the other payments were made to residents from 119 00:08:33,000 --> 00:08:37,600 Speaker 1: French Polynesia. To make matters worse, many of the testing 120 00:08:37,640 --> 00:08:41,960 Speaker 1: sites across the Algerian Sahara have yet to be decontaminated, 121 00:08:42,360 --> 00:08:44,760 Speaker 1: and some of them are fenced off by nothing but 122 00:08:44,880 --> 00:08:49,480 Speaker 1: barbed wire. If that this means that currents and future 123 00:08:49,520 --> 00:08:53,240 Speaker 1: residents are still in harm's way, and if they get sick, 124 00:08:53,640 --> 00:08:57,679 Speaker 1: the French compensation plan will be of no use to them. 125 00:08:57,720 --> 00:09:01,559 Speaker 1: In that way, one man show of strength and ingenuity 126 00:09:01,760 --> 00:09:06,080 Speaker 1: has ensured the suffering of tens of thousands of others, past, 127 00:09:06,320 --> 00:09:13,800 Speaker 1: present and future. Hurrah for France. I'm Gaye Lusier and 128 00:09:13,880 --> 00:09:17,120 Speaker 1: hopefully you now know a little more about history today 129 00:09:17,520 --> 00:09:20,680 Speaker 1: than you did yesterday. You can learn even more about 130 00:09:20,760 --> 00:09:24,800 Speaker 1: history by following us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at 131 00:09:24,840 --> 00:09:28,440 Speaker 1: T D I HC Show and if you have any 132 00:09:28,480 --> 00:09:31,440 Speaker 1: comments or suggestions. You can always send them my way 133 00:09:31,679 --> 00:09:35,640 Speaker 1: at this day at i heart media dot com. Thanks 134 00:09:35,640 --> 00:09:38,480 Speaker 1: to Chandler Mays for producing the show, and thank you 135 00:09:38,520 --> 00:09:41,960 Speaker 1: for listening. I'll see you back here again tomorrow for 136 00:09:42,040 --> 00:09:54,559 Speaker 1: another day in History class. For more podcasts from I 137 00:09:54,640 --> 00:09:57,439 Speaker 1: Heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or 138 00:09:57,440 --> 00:09:59,040 Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows.