AMOSPHERIC TESTING AT MORUROA ATOLL

In 1972 Greenpeace became truly international in scope when it waged it's second campaign against nuclear testing at Moruroa Atoll, in the French controlled territory of the South Pacific. At that time, the government of France was the only Western nuclear power still conducting tests above ground so Moruroa was the obvious next target for a Greenpeace protest. Radioactive fallout from more than 40 explosions during the 1960's and 70's had contaminated large swathes of the region. Yet the French insisted on continuing their atmospheric nuclear tests. To catapult this issue onto the world media stage, Greenpeace decided to repeat the Amchitka protest and sail another ship into a bomb zone.