In the summer of 1987 the young Basque couple was looking at the beauty of Lake Lugano in Switzerland, when a well-known Swiss journalist warned them that fishing in its waters was forbidden: “The cloud of Chernobyldi is polluted.” Is that Chernobyl? But wasn’t that a long way from the Soviet Union?

The Spanish subordinate Basques have never known how much radioactivity reached them in May 1986. Not even the majority of French citizens at first. But the neighboring borders with Germany and Switzerland became aware of some oddities. Farmers in Altsacia, for example, found that while their markets were open, the Germans on the other side of the border had been banned from selling vegetables for a few months. Frontera's miracle by chance?

Rather than a miracle, the decision of the authorities. Professor Pierre Pellerin was then head of the public service Service Central de Protection contre les Rayons Ionisants (SCPRI). On April 26, 1986, the 4th Chernobyl reactor exploded, and the radiation cloud reached France on April 29. On 1 May in the Hexagon, it was detected in significant numbers in the vicinity of all nuclear power plants.

Pellerin would immediately say that these were irrelevant clues. Poland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Great Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, Italy, Greece... measures were taken in all, especially with regard to food. Not in France. Faced with this, the Italians began to control pollution on their borders with France.

On May 6, the French government released a historical document stating: “The territory of France, so far away, has been completely free of the radiation generated by the Chernobyl accident.” Much later, in 2001, a paper from the Ministry of the Interior would be found in a search warrant by the judges, in which it is written by hand: “We have data we can’t divulge.” By then, the measurement of radioactivity in the milk of a herd in Corsica had yielded 20 times what was allowed in Europe.

It was during these days that the Independent Commission for Research and Information on Radioactivity (CRIIRAD) was created. The relationship between this small association and the Parisian authorities would have been tough in the years to come.

In 2002, CRIIRAD published an atlas of the pollution caused by Chernobyl in France. He made a great deal of noise because it was seen among others that serious pollution had occurred both in Corsica and in the southeastern part of the Hexagon. With this information, many who were suffering from thyroid cancer began to come together. In the end, 400 patients were recruited and the authorities, including Pellerin, were sued.

To calm the scandal, the government had to make profound changes to its nuclear control structures. This is how they created the Institut de Radioprotection et de Sûreté Nucléaire (IRSN), which is much more independent and credible than its equivalent Consejo de Seguridad Nuclear in Spain. In 2003, the IRSN published an atlas of the pollution caused by Chernobyl in France... almost identical to that described previously by the small CRIIRAD!

Protect the population on time

CRIIRAD is not an antinuclear organization, this is always clearly expressed by President Roland Desbordes. It has 4,700 members and a dozen employees, most of them experts in radioactivity. It has an approved laboratory for the study of radioactive contamination and over the years it has carried out more than 1,000 studies, many commissioned by municipal and public schools.

The organization is financed by the fees of its partners and from the fees it charges for carrying out the aforementioned research. Thus, in addition to what we have already mentioned under the influence of Chernobyl, it has produced French and European atlases of radioactive pollution, pollution spread by certain nuclear workplaces on the ground, in the air and in rivers, and so on. It is based in the city of Valence and has stable areas for the measurement of both air and water radioactivity in the Rhône-Rhône valley.

Desbordes defines CRIIRAD’s effort as follows: “Our goal is to alert our community to the risks posed by both pollution and waste. We are involved in the investigation to be able to independently disseminate information.” In addition to monitoring the contamination of old reactors, they are now closely and critically studying those of the new generations promoted by nuclear enthusiasts who, in addition to uranium, use plutonium as a by-product.

France has the largest number of nuclear power stations and the strongest nuclear lobby, but CRIIRAD has earned great respect for its serious work. Five years ago, on the 20th anniversary of Chernobyl, Tchernobyl: le mensonge français (Chernobyl, the French lie) was shown on French television. The film largely gathers the results of the research of this association. Five years later, it has been shown again on French public television... but this time the 25th anniversary of Chernobyl has been adapted with the Fukushima Blast Valley.

CRIIRAD’s focus during the Fukushima crisis has been on their main lines of work: access and dissemination of information on pollution, mainly in France, but thanks to the Internet at the disposal of the whole world. With the organization Greenpeace and the few journalists like Dominique Leglu, director of the magazine Sciences et Avenir, he has provided first-rate information.

To begin with, CRIIRAD in France has discovered traces of radioactivity brought by the wind from Japan with its equipment. Secondly, he has made a strict interpretation of them in his bulletins, without alarmism but strictly. It has made it clear to the public that the levels of radioactivity found in inhaled air and drinking water are indeed low, without risk. That vegetables and foods are also available to eat quietly in general.

But CRIIRAD has been concerned about Japanese citizens from the beginning. Recalling the damage caused by Chernobyl radiation to the people of Ukraine and Belorussia by failing to inform them of the situation in time and by failing to take protective measures, he called on the authorities to provide timely information and assistance to the unevacuated citizens of the Fukushima area. Those of CRIIRAD have not been comforted by the fact that they were right in their predictions. The April 12 newsletter says: “The experts are working on calculations, the citizens are suffering. (...) There is an urgent need to measure risks and take protective measures. Rather, this was urgent 4-5 weeks ago! “They had to protect people long before.”