Pierre Pellerin:

French Nuclear Henchman
Indicted in Aftermath of Chernobyl

LAURENT / Lasting News 1jun2006

France — An ex-government official was indicted yesterday of lying and misleading the population in areas affected by radiation doses after the Chernobyl explosion. Pierre Pellerin, the head of the nuclear security watchdog in France at the time of the Chernobyl explosion in April 2006, has been accused for a long time of having lied about the effects in France of the explosion. 

In a now legendary TV statement in early may, Professor Pellerin famously declared that the Chernobyl nuclear cloud stopped its course just short at the French eastern border. 

For Mr Pellerin, there never were public health issues after the Chernobyl explosion in France. This point of view, which is also the stance of the powerful nuclear lobby in France, has been challenged for twenty years by independent studies giving evidence of an increase of thyroid cancer and thyroid disease in the most affected areas — especially in the eastern part of the island of Corse. 

Professor Pellerin has so far won several trials against journalists and politicians accusing him of intentionally misleading the public in order to protect the French nuclear lobby rather than public health.

But this time, the tide seems to have turned. Professor Pellerin has been sued by 500 individuals who are suffering from diseases officially linked to Chernobyl radiations after eating contaminated dairy products. 

The great issue is that, while some other European countries, such as Germany, were cautiously forbidding some sensitive products, French government did nothing to protect citizens. In this case, Professor Pellerin seems to be the most outspoken official in 1986, but he looks scapegoated, even if, according to the independent environmental NGO CRIIRAD, accused him heavily on the issue.

Nevertheless this indictment is a very good news for nuclear responsibility.

source: edited by Mindfully.org for grammar 7apr2008