The Reggane series was a group of 4

atmospheric An atmosphere () is a layer of gases that envelop an astronomical object, held in place by the gravity of the object. A planet retains an atmosphere when the gravity is great and the temperature of the atmosphere is low. A stellar atmosphere ...

A-bomb A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission or atomic bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear weapon), producing a nuclear explo ...

nuclear tests Nuclear weapons tests are experiments carried out to determine the performance of nuclear weapons and the effects of Nuclear explosion, their explosion. Nuclear testing is a sensitive political issue. Governments have often performed tests to si ...

conducted by

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

between February 1960 and April 1961, close to the end of the

Algerian War The Algerian War (also known as the Algerian Revolution or the Algerian War of Independence) ''; '' (and sometimes in Algeria as the ''War of 1 November'') was an armed conflict between France and the Algerian National Liberation Front (Algeri ...

. The bombs were detonated at the Saharan Military Experiments Centre near

Reggane Reggane (from Berber "Argan"; ) is a town and commune, and the capital of Reggane District, in Adrar Province, central Algeria. Reggane lies in the Sahara Desert near an oasis. According to the 2008 census it has a population of 20,402, up from 14 ...

French Algeria French Algeria ( until 1839, then afterwards; unofficially ; ), also known as Colonial Algeria, was the period of History of Algeria, Algerian history when the country was a colony and later an integral part of France. French rule lasted until ...

in the

Sahara The Sahara (, ) is a desert spanning across North Africa. With an area of , it is the largest hot desert in the world and the list of deserts by area, third-largest desert overall, smaller only than the deserts of Antarctica and the northern Ar ...

desert region of

Tanezrouft The Tanezrouft () is a natural region located along the borders of Algeria and Mali, west of the Hoggar Mountains. Along with the Libyan Desert it is one of the most desolate and most arid parts of the Sahara Desert. This area has no permanent ...

, by the Nuclear Experiments Operational Group (GOEN), a unit of the Joint Special Weapons Command. The series saw the explosion of the first French nuclear weapon and was followed by the In Ekker series. The French authorities claimed that the tests took place in an uninhabited area, but at least 27,000 people living in the vicinity were negatively impacted. The radioactive fallout caused elevated levels of skin cancer, birth defects, organ cancers and blindness among the local population.

Codenames

All four operations were named after the

jerboa Jerboas () are the members of the family Dipodidae. They are hopping desert rodents found throughout North Africa and Asia. They tend to live in hot deserts. When chased, jerboas can run at up to . Some species are preyed on by little owls (''A ...

(''Gerboise''), a desert

rodent Rodents (from Latin , 'to gnaw') are mammals of the Order (biology), order Rodentia ( ), which are characterized by a single pair of continuously growing incisors in each of the upper and Mandible, lower jaws. About 40% of all mammal specie ...

found in the Sahara, with the adjunction of a colour. The first three colours adjuncted (blue, white and red) are said to come from the

French Flag The national flag of France () is a tricolour featuring three vertical bands coloured blue ( hoist side), white, and red. The design was adopted after the French Revolution, whose revolutionaries were influenced by the horizontally striped r ...

Chart of the tests

Human impact

The French authorities claimed that the tests took place in uninhabited areas, but thousands of people lived in the vicinity and were not properly warned of the tests.61 years later, Algerians still suffer from France's atomic legacy
/ref> The tests left "a legacy of uncontained radiation that is still crippling inhabitants", with the radioactive plutonium causing higher levels of skin cancer and other afflictions. During the 1970s, babies in southern Algeria began to be born with birth defects, including atrophied limbs, while those that had witnessed the tests were affected by organ cancers and blindness. France’s Ministry of Defence estimated that 27,000 Algerians were impacted by the test, although there were a total of 60,000 people living in the area at the time.

Notes

References

{{Nuclear weapons tests of France - Algeria–France military relations Adrar Province 1960 in Algeria 1961 in Algeria 1960 in France 1961 in France 1960 in science 1961 in science 1960 in military history 1961 in military history 1960 in politics 1961 in politics

Codenames

Chart of the tests

Human impact

See also

Notes

References