The virtual seminar will be held from 12:30 to 2:00 PM (US E.T.)
Between 1966 and 1996, France conducted 193 atmospheric and underground nuclear weapons tests in Polynesia in the Southern Pacific Ocean, profoundly affecting the environment and the health of local people and of French veterans involved in the testing program. The talk based on the newly published book Toxique and the related website Moruroa Files presents the results of a two-year long study involving extensive computer simulations of the nuclear tests and fallout, dozens of interviews in France and Polynesia, and 2000 pages of declassified French government documents, revealing the consequences of French nuclear testing in the Pacific and the struggle of local communities and veterans to seek justice and compensation.
About the speakers:
Sébastien Philippe is an Associate Research Scholar at the Program on Science and Global Security. He is also an associate fellow at the Nuclear Knowledges Program at Sciences-Po, Paris. Previously, he was a Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and worked in the French Ministry of Defense. He has a PhD from Princeton.
Nabil Ahmed is a transdisciplinary scholar and writer and leads INTERPRT, an environmental justice project that investigates and advocates for the criminalization of ecocide under international law. He is a postdoctoral fellow at the academy of fine art, architecture and design faculty at Norwegian University of Science and Technology. He holds a PhD from the Centre for Research Architecture, Goldsmiths University of London.
Tomas Statius is a freelance journalist. He collaborates with Disclose which is both a media outlet and an NGO promoting investigative journalism, Mediapart, Le Canard Enchaîné, L'Obs, Liberation and Le Journal du Dimanche. He was previously deputy editor-in-chief of the StreetPress.com.