Photo taken June 2000 of part of the atoll of Mururoa, four years after the cessation of French nuclear testing. Photo: ERIC FEFERBERG / AFP
France has opened its archives to the vast majority of documents related to its nuclear weapons tests in the South Pacific.
The defence ministry said President Emmanuel Macron had acknowledged that France owed a debt to French Polynesia for having carried out nearly 200 nuclear tests between 1966 and 1996.
It said Marcon had asked for the complete opening of the archives with the exception of the most sensitive military data.
According to the ministry, 594 boxes at the Defence History Service have so far been identified and processed, meaning 81,980 documents are now declassified and accessible for researchers.
View of the advanced recording base PEA "Denise" on Moruroa atoll. Photo: AFP
It said only 40 documents were withheld.
Another 27 boxes of documents were yet to be examined.
Three years ago, the partial opening of the archives had been rescinded.
A leading historian in French Polynesia Jean-Marc Regnault said no reason for the closure has been given.
At the time he said a 2008 law already restricted access to an entire file if one document in it was deemed classified.
More than a quarter of a century after the last weapons test, the compensation question is yet to be settled and the test sites remain no-go zones monitored by France.
Until 2009, France claimed that its tests were clean and caused no harm, but in 2010, under the stewardship of defence minister Herve Morin, a compensation law was passed.