A French Polynesian nuclear tests veterans organisation says from next year it will assist more claimants for compensation for radiation-induced illnesses.
The Association 193 says over 23 years health authorities have classified 7,500 cancer sufferers who may have become ill because of the French weapons tests - two thirds of them have died.
The Association says it wants to help lodge compensation cases for people who got sick while not having working on the weapons test sites.
50 years after the first nuclear test, and 20 years after the last. The French Polynesia atoll of Mururoa is still largely a no-go zone. Photo: AFP
This comes after it became known two weeks ago that the French Compensation Committee acknowledged for the first time that a woman got her cancers from exposure to radiation although she had never been to the weapons test sites.
Seven people have been compensated so far under the 2010 law adopted by France although more than 1,000 applications have been lodged.
21 cancers and conditions are listed as eligible for consideration.