The examination by the Independent Research and Information Commission on Radioactivity contests results published last June by the Agency.
The 2000-page Agency report said the tests had had "no radiological health effects" and little significant environmental impact on the Fangataufa and Mururoa atolls.
But the Independent Commission report said radioactivity was 94 and 371 times above the level required for sites to be maintained under surveillance, adding that the radioactivity was leaking into the water table, lagoons and ocean.
The commission's experts published scenarios based on plutonium contamination of the atoll's northern zones, warning that a danger existed of involuntary ingestion of contaminated soil, by children playing in sand for example, or of breathing microscopic particles.
These threats constituted "unacceptable risks and required at the least a controlled access", it said.
From July 1966 to January 1996, France carried our 193 atmospheric and underground tests in the area. They were finally halted by President Jacques Chirac after increasing protests by Pacific and Asian countries.
According to the independent French laboratory, under ground samples revealed radioactive levels of 3,482 tera-becquerels on Fangataufa, and 13,729 tera-becquerels (TBq) on Mururoa -- meaning both sites qualified as nuclear installations requiring continued surveillance.
But the Institute for Nuclear Safety and Protection, which acts as an adviser to French nuclear authorities, also issued a communique recalling its study published last June. It had found levels of radioactive nuclides outside the two atolls were at "very low levels, often almost undetectable". -- AFP
Published in the Canberra Times, Monday, 22 February 1999, page 7.
[Note: 1 becquerel = 1 radioactive decay per second, 1 gram of radium is equivalent to 0.037 TBq]