The French nuclear compensation commission, CIVEN, says it has paid out $US30 million to victims of France's nuclear weapons test since 2010.
The explosion from a French nuclear test at Mururoa in French Polynesia. France conducted 193 tests between 1966 and 1996. Photo: AFP
In a report, the agency said the money was paid out to a total of 362 individuals for ill-health caused by the weapons tests in Algeria and French Polynesia.
In 2019, a further 96 people in French Polynesia applied for compensation, raising the total to almost 1,600 applicants.
Last year, CIVEN accepted 62 compensation claims lodged in French Polynesia while in the period from 2010 to 2017, only 11 were accepted.
France claimed that its tests were clean and caused no harm until 2010 when a compensation law was passed.
However, after a high rejection rate the compensation criteria were loosened in 2017 but again tightened in a reform approved last month.
France tested its atomic weapons in French Polynesia from 1966 to 1996.
The atoll of Mururoa still bears the marks of nuclear testing Photo: AFP