France spent €90,000 countering research into impact of Pacific nuclear tests

A nuclear bomb detonates at the Moruroa atoll, French Polynesia. France carried out nuclear tests from 1966 to 1996. Photograph: AP

France’s Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) has spent tens of thousands of euros in an effort to counter research revealing that Paris has consistently underestimated the devastating impact of its nuclear tests in French Polynesia in the 1960s and 1970s.

Days before a parliamentary inquiry presents its report on the tests, documents obtained by the investigative outlet Disclose, and seen by Le Monde and the Guardian, suggest the CEA ran a concerted campaign to discredit the revelations.