A leading historian in French Polynesia says access to the archives of the French nuclear weapons programme has again been shut.
The explosion from a French nuclear test at Mururoa in French Polynesia. France conducted 193 tests between 1966 and 1996. Photo: AFP
Jean-Marc Regnault described the shutting of the archives, which have been accessible for 21 years, as a backwards step.
He said it would affect plans for a weapons testing memorial in Papeete, which France has said will also serve as an archive.
It was established from the files that the French government decided to transfer its atomic testing programme to French Polynesia before Algeria's independence in 1962.
No reason for the closure has been given but the historian said a 2008 law restricted access to an entire file if one document in it was deemed classified.
Last year, the French Polynesian government commissioned a history of the testing regime in which 193 weapons were tested between 1966 and 1996.