  Between 1966 and 1974, France conducted 41 atmospheric nuclear weapon tests
in Polynesia. Radioactive fallout impacted downwind atolls and islands leading
to the external and internal exposure of the local populations to ionizing
radiation. By law, individuals who were exposed to radiation in the context of
these tests can file compensation claims with the French government if they
develop certain radiogenic cancers. A claimant who meets the basic eligibility
criteria (place, time, and type of disease) automatically benefits from the
presumption of a causal link between radiation exposure and the development of
their illness, unless the exposure is deemed too low. Since 2017, an effective
dose threshold of 1 mSv per year has been used in the claims adjudication
process. Decisions as to whether claimants have met this 1 mSv threshold in a
given year are often made on the basis of data from government dose
reconstruction studies carried out in 2005 and 2006. Using new information
available from recently declassified documents on the radiological impact of
French atmospheric nuclear tests in Polynesia, as well as atmospheric transport
modeling of radioactive fallout, this article shows that maximum doses to the
public for key atmospheric tests may have been underestimated by factors of 2
to 10 and estimates that the total population exposed above the compensation
threshold of 1 mSv/yr could be greater than ~110,000. This latter result
corresponds to about 90% of the entire population of French Polynesia at the
time of the atmospheric tests. Integrating these updated dose estimates into
the claim adjudication process would enlarge the pool of eligible claimants by
a factor of 10. Also discussed are the legal and policy implications of these
findings.
