France tested nuclear weapons at two main locations: the Algerian Sahara Desert from 1960 to 1966, and the atolls of Moruroa and Fangataufa in French Polynesia from 1966 to 1996. Over that 36-year span, France detonated 210 nuclear devices, making it the fourth most prolific nuclear testing nation after the United States, the Soviet Union, and the United Kingdom.
The Sahara Desert: Algeria (1960–1966)
France’s nuclear weapons program began in its then-colony of Algeria. The first test, codenamed Gerboise Bleue, took place on February 13, 1960, near the town of Reggane in the deep Sahara. This made France the fourth country to successfully detonate a nuclear weapon, after the U.S., the Soviet Union, and the UK. The Reggane series involved atmospheric tests, with bombs detonated above the desert surface.
After the initial atmospheric tests at Reggane, France shifted to underground testing at a second Algerian site: In Ekker, located in the Hoggar Mountains. Between November 1961 and February 1966, 13 underground nuclear tests were conducted there, along with five smaller subcritical experiments. The bombs were detonated inside tunnels drilled into the granite mountains. These tests were used to develop France’s first operational nuclear warheads.
Algeria gained independence from France in 1962, but the testing agreement allowed France to continue using its Saharan sites for several more years. By early 1966, with those arrangements expiring, France relocated its entire nuclear testing operation to the South Pacific.
French Polynesia: Moruroa and Fangataufa (1966–1996)
The vast majority of French nuclear tests took place on two remote coral atolls in the Tuamotu Archipelago, roughly 1,200 kilometers southeast of Tahiti. Between 1966 and 1996, France conducted 193 tests across these two sites: 179 at Moruroa (sometimes spelled Mururoa) and 14 at Fangataufa.
The first phase, from 1966 to 1974, involved atmospheric testing. Forty-six bombs were detonated in the open air above the atolls (42 at Moruroa, 4 at Fangataufa). These above-ground explosions sent radioactive fallout across wide stretches of the Pacific and provoked intense international criticism, particularly from Australia, New Zealand, and Pacific Island nations. In 1974, under mounting diplomatic pressure, France halted atmospheric testing and moved all future detonations underground.
From 1975 onward, nuclear devices were lowered into shafts drilled deep into the basalt rock beneath the atolls and detonated hundreds of meters below the surface. France conducted 137 underground tests at Moruroa and 10 at Fangataufa. For most of this period, the testing rate was seven to twelve explosions per year. Fangataufa was largely deactivated after two initial underground tests in 1975, and the bulk of the program was concentrated at Moruroa.
The Final Tests and the End of the Program
France paused nuclear testing in 1992 under a temporary moratorium. In 1995, President Jacques Chirac controversially restarted the program with a final series of six underground tests at Moruroa and Fangataufa. The decision triggered worldwide protests, boycotts of French goods, and riots in Tahiti. France’s last nuclear test took place on January 27, 1996. Shortly after, France signed the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty and permanently closed both Pacific test sites.
The Full Testing Count
Across all sites, France’s 210 nuclear tests break down as follows: 50 were atmospheric (detonated in the open air) and 160 were underground. The Algerian tests accounted for a relatively small share of the total. The overwhelming majority, about 92%, took place in the South Pacific.
Health Consequences and Compensation
Decades of nuclear testing left a legacy of radiation exposure affecting military personnel, civilian workers, and residents of surrounding areas. Atmospheric tests in both Algeria and Polynesia spread radioactive fallout well beyond the immediate blast zones. Indigenous Polynesian communities on nearby islands were particularly affected, as were Algerian populations living near the Saharan sites.
In 2010, France passed the Morin Law, creating a compensation system for people who developed cancers linked to radiation from the tests. The law originally covered 18 types of cancer and was later expanded to 21, including non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and myeloma. In practice, however, the system proved extremely difficult to navigate. Over its first three and a half years, only 11 out of 840 applications were approved, a rejection rate of 98.7%. By the end of 2017, that number had risen to just 31 approvals out of 1,245 total applications. The near-total rejection rate became a source of deep frustration for veterans’ groups and Polynesian advocacy organizations, who argued the law’s burden of proof was functionally impossible to meet.
Environmental Legacy at the Atolls
The structural integrity of the atolls themselves became a long-term concern. Drilling dozens of deep shafts into coral and basalt, then detonating nuclear devices inside them, fractured the underlying rock. Over the years, questions arose about whether radioactive material was leaking from the test cavities into the surrounding ocean through cracks in the atoll structure. France has maintained monitoring programs at both sites, though independent access has historically been limited.
The atolls remain under French military control and are not open to the public. Environmental monitoring continues, but the full extent of contamination, particularly deep within the geological structure of Moruroa, is still a subject of scientific debate. For the people of French Polynesia, the test sites remain a defining and deeply contested part of their modern history.