French Nuclear Testing

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not signed a treaty completely prohibiting the detonation of any nuclear device in the South Pacific. Many of the protesting nations located in the Pacific have signed and support this treaty . Also, France has not followed the initiative of most of the nations of the developed world in signing a 1971 treaty prohibiting "the emplacement of nuclear weapons ... on the ocean floor and in the subsoil thereof."
Besides public and international disapproval, France may suffer other side effects because of the nuclear testing. The explosive power of the blast is just less than 20 kilotons (20,000 tons of TNT). The bomb on Hiroshima was 15 kilotons. New Japanese research shows that bomb radiation increases risk of long term cancer. Radiation causes ionization in the molecules of living cells. The ions formed can react with the atoms in the cell causing damage. Cells that are changed permanently may produce abnormal cells when they divide, perhaps become cancerous. Not only are there health ...

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