France's Search for Nuclear Test Sites, 1957-1963

Regnault, Jean-Marc

doi:10.1353/jmh.2003.0326

Cited by 20 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…Ce sont des risques d'opposition de la population, à un moment de développement du tourisme, qui sont mentionnés. En fin de compte, le choix se porte sur la Polynésie française : l'atoll de Mururoa [9].…”

Section: Choisir Albion: Les Logiques Du Pouvoirunclassified

Un territoire de la dissuasion nucléaire: le plateau d’Albion

Monier

2019

E3S Web Conf.

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A territory for nuclear deterrence: high plains of Albion. This presentation studies the social silence surrounding recent French history, in the cold war period. The case study concerns social and political perceptions of the former strategic missile base located in Albion, active from 1970 to 1996, and then dismantled. The decision to create the missile base in this French heartland was taken by the Gaullist power in Paris in 1965, without considering local expectations. This arouse strong national and local conflicts, both political and cultural, in the 1960’s, between supporters of the militarization and its opponents. Nuclear missiles were not welcome by all: anxiety and new popular culturesuch as rumours about UFO’stestify for the entering in a new age. Was there a real patriotic consent to cold war? Resignation and fatalistic attitudes seem to have prevailed. Since the late 2000’s, i.e. twenty years after the demilitarization of Albion, some former servicemen still denounce the activities linked to nuclear missiles as responsible for radioactive contamination and persistent diseases. This history, not investigated nor written yet, should highlight the reluctant and ambivalent attitudes of the French society when entering nuclear age.

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Section: Choisir Albion: Les Logiques Du Pouvoirunclassified

Un territoire de la dissuasion nucléaire: le plateau d’Albion

Monier

2019

E3S Web Conf.

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“…For this was how technological mastery of nuclear power was viewed in the 1960s by the French government and a large part of the population: not as a defence against the Soviet threat, but as a tool to free themselves from American domination following the humiliation of Suez (Vaïsse, 1992;Regnault, 2003). In Turkey as in France, the project of military self-empowerment-a technological, economic and industrial project-did not challenge the Atlanticist alliance.…”

Section: 12mentioning

confidence: 99%

Development as a Battlefield

2017

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Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. This is an open access book distributed under the terms of the CC-BY-NC license at the time of publication, which permits any non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited. Terms of use: Documents inCover illustration: Street scene in the old town of Iiaret, Algeria, 18 December 2012. Photographer © Aurélie Lecarpentier [Aalek] The Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available online at http://catalog.loc.gov lc record available at

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“…Another option was French colonial holdings in the South Pacific, an area which the French had largely ignored and which lacked the infrastructure such as airfields, power generation and intact structures to house the materials and personnel to stage the tests. Also, it was on the other side of the world and would be impossible for large cargo transport planes to reach without stopping at foreign airfields en route, a scenario the French wished to avoid since the planes would be carrying sensitive and occasionally radioactive cargo (Regnault 2003).…”

Section: Algeria and French Polynesia For Francementioning

confidence: 99%

Nuclear Conquistadors: Military Colonialism in Nuclear Test Site Selection during the Cold War

Jacobs¹

2013

AJP

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The history of nuclear weapon testing by the major nuclear powers during the Cold War is intimately tied to the history of military colonialism in the 20th century. For each of the first five nuclear powers (U.S., USSR, UK, France, and China) the process of selecting a site for nuclear weapon testing was driven more by the location of a small group of politically marginalized people unable to object to being exposed to dangerous levels of radioactive fallout, to the loss of their homes, and the contamination of the land and seas providing their primary food sources, than it was by scientific and military requirements. Invariably these populations were constituted of people of a different racial, ethnic or religious group than that of the colonial power. This article examines the selection of nuclear test sites for each of the five major nuclear powers both in the reaches of their military empires and their own domestic landmasses.

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France's Search for Nuclear Test Sites, 1957-1963

Cited by 20 publications

References 3 publications

Un territoire de la dissuasion nucléaire: le plateau d’Albion

Un territoire de la dissuasion nucléaire: le plateau d’Albion

Development as a Battlefield

Nuclear Conquistadors: Military Colonialism in Nuclear Test Site Selection during the Cold War

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