France Tested Nukes In Sahara Desert, That Radioactive Dust Is Polluting France Now
According to Acro, in the 1960s, North African country Algeria was a part of French overseas territory. French, with access to this territory, carried out nuclear tests here, thus contaminating the soil.
Dust from one of the largest deserts in the world, Sahara has blown north through strong seasonal winds to France and along with this, it has carried some rather serious levels of radiation with it.
EuroNews
This is according to French NGO ACRO or Association for Control of Radioactivity in the West (reported first by EuroNews) that keeps a check on the levels of radiation in the nation. What¡¯s surprising is that the radioactive nature of this dust is actually due to the activities France did in the past.
According to Acro, in the 1960s, North African country Algeria was a part of French overseas territory. The French carried out nuclear tests here, thus contaminating the soil.
This strange ¡®boomerang¡¯ effect, as Acro claims have brought back a byproduct of nuclear fission explosions dubbed caesium-137 back into France. Acro tested the Saharan dust in the area of Jura, near the French border with Switzerland where it made this rather surprising discovery.
Acro said in a statement, ¡°Considering homogeneous deposits in a wide area, based on this analytical result, Acro estimates there was 80,000 bq per km2 of caesium-137. This radioactive contamination, which comes from far away, 60 years after the nuclear explosions, reminds us of the perennial radioactive contamination in the Sahara, for which France is responsible.¡±
Is this dangerous?
Anyone who has seen the Chernobyl TV show knows that radioactive poisoning is a rather painful way to die. However, scientists from the University of Laguna on the Canary Islands, said in a statement to EuroNews that there is nothing to worry about really.
They had conducted a study about radiation present dust that was brought by the strong storms in the year 2020 that even resulted in the closure of airports. At that time, the team discovered high levels of potassium 40 and caesium-137 in the dust.
Reuters
Pedro Salazar Carballo stated that these levels were safe and the labs are constantly monitoring levels of radioactivity which is shared with the Nuclear Safety Council.
He adds, ¡°What actually exposes us the most to radioactivity is the natural radon that emanates naturally from the soil itself. It is estimated that between 5 percent and 14 percent of lung cancers are due to the radon gas that we breathe, especially in underground and closed spaces.¡±
