Three people, including one called up from the contingent, were recognized as victims of one of the French nuclear test campaigns by the Nancy Administrative Court of Appeal, we learned Tuesday, December 1 from judicial sources.
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The Nancy court confirmed the decision of the Strasbourg administrative court of May 15, 2019 against which the Nuclear Test Victims Compensation Committee (Civen) had appealed.
Le Civen had explained at first instance that he had refused the status of victims to these three Alsatians because the interested parties could not have been exposed to a sufficient dose of radioactivity.
But the administrative court had refuted this argument and noted in particular that there had been insufficient specific medical surveillance.
At the end of the morning, the details of the decision of the Administrative Court of Appeal were not available pending communication to the parties.
“
I can only be satisfied with the appeal decision which confirms the judgment of the TA: it will allow the liquidation of this damage to continue.
The expert report is already done.
The court will be able to rule if the Civen does not go before the Council of State
”, declared the lawyer for the victims, Me Cécile Labrunie, of the TTLA cabinet.
On the other hand, a fourth man was dismissed on the grounds that there were no more nuclear tests carried out at the site of Reggane, in Algeria, when he stayed there in 1962-63.
"
The problem is that the consequences of radioactivity do not disappear overnight,
" lamented Me Labrunie, recalling for example the lifespan of plutonium: "
24,000 years
".
The law provides for compensating people who are victims of 23 cancers provided they have stayed in areas that have been affected by nuclear tests, Polynesia or the Sahara.
But it sets a "
condition of accountability,
" explained Me Labrunie.
This condition has varied several times in the texts.
Thus, the three people who have just been recognized as victims had been dismissed in 2013/2014, recalled Me Labrunie.
After the vote of new rules and a decision of the Council of State, these three people had submitted a new file.
According to Me Labrunie, the firm TTLA, one of the most important in France in this type of case, has already defended some "
400 to 500 files
" of claims for compensation for nuclear tests and has to date settled some. 150 to 200 ".