Nuclear Paradise

NUCLEAR PARADISE

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View of the atoll lagoon, Stellio's family hut, Hao 2021

The French Polynesian Hao atoll, located in the south Pacific, was transformed into a major military base for the French nuclear weapons testing program (1966-1996). Little is known in Europe, including France, about the severe effects of French nuclear weapons testing on the environment, health, and everyday life of the Polynesian people. Today, roughly 25 years after the last test, the daily life of the local residents of the Hao atoll is marked by nostalgia for the military past discontent about the gloomy present, and hope for a better future.

Following the shutdown of the French military base on Hao in 2000, the unemployment rate on Hao rose significantly. Many of the atoll’s 1,200 inhabitants felt abandoned by the French military and eventually came to realize that the "golden age" of France's military presence had come with a high price, namely socio-economic dependence and contaminated land.

Life on Hao is quiet today. It is marked by small-scale fishing, copra harvesting and celebrating traditional and religious festivities.

A fact that is appreciated by many of its inhabitants who describe it as a peaceful paradise compared to life on French Polynesia’s main island of Tahiti, which seems to be more stressful because of the high population density and constant traffic jams around the capital of Papeete. At the same time this quiet life represents the Hao population’s shared feeling of being forgotten by the government authorities on Tahiti.

Hao's military nuclear past has left its mark not only on the atoll's landscapes and architectural remains, but also on its inhabitants, some of whom still live in former military buildings. You can feel the “glorious” past in those remaining buildings. For those who still live in these buildings it represents a status symbol. They represent the privilege of living in robust houses (protecting them from cyclones) on undivided, collectively owned ancestral land.

Hao atoll - History

In the early 1960s, Hao was drastically transformed into a military support base for nearby French nuclear weapons testing. Between 1966 and 1996, the Pacific Experimentation Centre (Centre d'Expérimentation du Pacifique – CEP) tested 193 nuclear devices on Moruroa and Fangataufa, two atolls located some 400 kilometers south of Hao.

During the atmospheric tests, Vautour military aircraft flew into the radioactive clouds over Moruroa and Fangataufa to collect gas samples. They then flew over to Hao where they got decontaminated with seawater. When the nuclear testing activities came to an end in 1996, the French army buried the radioactive waste on the atoll and dumped bulky military waste into the Hao lagoon.

Despite the environmental and health impacts stemming from the testing activities, many Hao islanders look back on their military and nuclear past with a sense of nostalgia. This can be explained by the fact that the French military presence propelled considerable socio-economic growth, with lucrative job opportunities for the atoll's inhabitants, as well as free access to electricity and drinking water. The development of the atoll led to the emergence of a vibrant lifestyle, with nightclubs and the Polynesian territory's very first cinema.