The Curie family carried out some of the original research on radioactive materials in the first decades of the Twentieth Century. By the time of World War II, French research into nuclear energy was well advanced. French scientists kept General de Gaulle informed of American nuclear research and the possibility of nuclear weapons. Following the atomic bombing of Japan and the end of the War, de Gaulle started the French Atomic Energy Commissariat. In the aftermath of the War and the reconstruction of France following German occupation, the United States discourage nuclear weapons research and France fell behind other countries that were pursuing nuclear weapons.
The first French nuclear reactor went achieved a critical reaction in 1948 and small amounts of plutonium were extracted in 1949. In the early 1950s, a plan for the development of nuclear energy was drafted for the French government. The plan included the creation of one hundred and ten pounds of plutonium per year which would be enough for seven bombs per year. A secret committee was created to liason between the Commissariat and the military. In 1956, one program was set up to create delivery vehicles for nuclear bombs and another was set up to create strategic nuclear bombs. In 1958, de Gaulle set the date for the first French nuclear test and accelerated the French nuclear program. The French developed their delivery systems starting with strategic bombers and moving on to missiles and, eventually, missile firing submarines.
The first French atomic bomb test took place in 1960 at the Reganne Oasis in the Algerian Sahara desert and were atmospheric. After a few more tests at that location, testing moved underground to another Algerian site called In Ecker. During the Algerian tests, soldiers were told to advance on foot and in vehicles to within a few hundred meters of the epicenter of one of the blasts less than an hour after the bomb was detonated in order to test the effect of radiation on the troops. A survey in 2008 found that one third of the survivors of the radiation test had some form of cancer and one fifth were infertile. The environment suffered from the direct effects of the blasts and the radioactive fallout.
The the French nuclear tests moved to French Polynesian atolls in the South Pacific where their first thermonuclear atmospheric test was detonated in 1968. They continued both atmospheric and underground testing at the atolls until the mid 1990s. Environmental surveys show elevated levels of radiation with plutonium from the tests in the sediment around the atolls and high levels of tritium which leaked from underground tests.
In 1996, all of the French land-based missile silos were deactivated and dismantled. They still maintain a squadron of nuclear bombers. They have aircraft carriers which can carry planes that can deliver nuclear bombs. With a fleet of four nuclear armed submarines, the French keep at least two of the submarines at sea at all times. The French arsenal of nuclear warheads is estimated to be about three hundred.
In 2009, the French Senate passed a bill that admitted the adverse impacts that its nuclear testing program had had on the natural environment and the people near the test sites. They provided a compensation scheme for civilian and military veterans.
French nuclear submarine:
