A law to compensate victims

A bill to free l es s individual victims of radiation during nuclear tests will be submitted to parliament early 2009. For many years, associations of veterans of nuclear tests call for the creation of a fund of compensation, similar to one created for victims of the asbestos. Their hope now seems underway with the creation of a bill prepared by the Ministry of Defense. The text could be presented "in Council of Ministers in the first quarter of 2009 for a debate in Parliament during the first half," said yesterday the defense minister, Herve Morin. "Some hundreds" of files According to him, some 100,000 people participated in 210 nuclear tests conducted by France from 1960 to 1996. For the minister, however, only a fraction of them - "a few tens or hundreds - could be affected by compensation through the establishment of a "device rigorous but fair. The idea is to break the long and uncertain nature of court proceedings. " Complainants must meet two conditions to be compensated: suffering of a disease "radio-induced" (leukemia, lung cancer ...) and have been exposed to radiation beyond a certain threshold. Herve Morin spoke of 50 millisievert, arguing that it "acted threshold for the evacuation of people. "A glimmer of hope" For Michel Verger, president of the A Friday (A ssociation veterans of nuclear testing), this announcement is "a glimmer of hope because the government recognizes, finally, that nuclear testing could cause damage to the health of participants ". According to a study conducted by his association, 35% of veterans suffer from cancer, twice the French population. "The state will try to skew" The Bay Michel Cariou, 71, was the first irradiated of the Republic "to be recognized by the French Justice. That was in 2007. "My legal battle lasted 8 years. He totally exhausted. Today, I am very happy. It's going in the right direction. But I am convinced that the French government will attempt to bias. It will not proceed as the USA, which drew up a list of 30 radiation-induced diseases. The Defense Ministry will certainly admit a presumption of irradiation. Certainly, there will be medical. But where the rub is that patients will be referred to a list of radiation-induced diseases particularly maigrelette. "All it asks refined, we tell you. And when the last veteran of nuclear testing will be gone, there will be more problems. "