Vent de sable
In the late 1950s, the war in northern Algeria was at its peak. Yet, more than a thousand kilometers from the battlefield, a massive project was emerging from the Saharan sands: the atomic bomb. Officers and scientists from the French Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) established France's first atomic testing center. Five thousand people worked there—including many conscripted soldiers and a large local workforce—tasked with the most menial labor, which left them highly exposed to the dangers of radioactivity. On February 13, 1960, at 7:04 a.m., France's first atomic bomb—codenamed "Gerboise Bleue" (Blue Jerboa) and with a yield of sixty kilotons—was detonated. The town of Reggane lay just forty kilometers from ground zero. Between 1960 and 1966, the French military conducted seventeen tests: four atmospheric explosions near Reggane and thirteen underground tests in the Hoggar region. Half a century later, no epidemiological study has ever been carried out to determine the health and environmental impacts of these tests. Furthermore, the sites remain neither secured nor rehabilitated, leaving nomadic populations exposed to the dangers of lingering radioactivity. Survivors of these tests still remember the events and are demanding reparations, medical monitoring, and access to their military records—which remain classified under "defense secrecy."
- 2008
- 0 Hrs 57 Mins
- Documentary, Action & Adventure
In the late 1950s, the war in northern Algeria was at its peak. Yet, more than a thousand kilometers from the battlefield, a massive project was emerging from the Saharan sands: the atomic bomb. Officers and scientists from the French Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) established France's first atomic testing center. Five thousand people worked there—including many conscripted soldiers and a large local workforce—tasked with the most menial labor, which left them highly exposed to the dangers of radioactivity. On February 13, 1960, at 7:04 a.m., France's first atomic bomb—codenamed "Gerboise Bleue" (Blue Jerboa) and with a yield of sixty kilotons—was detonated. The town of Reggane lay just forty kilometers from ground zero. Between 1960 and 1966, the French military conducted seventeen tests: four atmospheric explosions near Reggane and thirteen underground tests in the Hoggar region. Half a century later, no epidemiological study has ever been carried out to determine the health and environmental impacts of these tests. Furthermore, the sites remain neither secured nor rehabilitated, leaving nomadic populations exposed to the dangers of lingering radioactivity. Survivors of these tests still remember the events and are demanding reparations, medical monitoring, and access to their military records—which remain classified under "defense secrecy."