Fairhurst, C., Brown, E.T., Detournay, E., de Marsily, G., Nikolaevskiy, V., Pearson, J.R.A, Townley, L., and Berest, P. (1999), Underground Nuclear Testing in French Polynesia, Stability and Hydrology Issues, International Geomechanical Commission (IGC), A report in three volumes: Volume I, General Results; Volume II, Technical Analyses, and Volume III, Les Essaies Nucléaires Souterrains en Polynésie Française: Stabilité et Hydrogéologie (French language extracts from Volumes I and II), La Documentation Française, Paris, France, 766 pp. in combined PDF.

The decision by France, in 1995, to resume underground testing of nuclear weapons in the South Pacific atolls of Mururoa and Fangataufa, led to worldwide protest and claims that underground testing, conducted from 1975 to 1990, had resulted in lasting damage to the stability and hydrology of the region and would lead to dangerous releases of radionuclides to the environment. President Chirac, in response, announced that two International Commissions of independent experts would be established by France to investigate the actual consequences of the tests with respect to these factors.

A Past President of the International Society for Rock Mechanics, Professor Charles Fairhurst, of the University of Minnesota, U.S.A., was asked in 1996 by the Government of France to set up an International Geomechanical Commission (IGC) to investigate the consequences of the underground nuclear tests carried out by France in Mururoa and Fangataufa (also referred to as the Pacific Test Centre, or PTC) for the mechanical stability and hydrological regime of the two atolls. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) was similarly asked to report on the radiological consequences of the tests. Because the hydrological consequences of the tests are directly related to the movement of radioactive materials, three members of the IGC also served on the IAEA group concerned with radionuclide transport through the rock. The composition of the IGC and its access to the French Ministry of Defence (through DIRCEN, CEA and DASE) and to the IAEA Commission are given in Figure 1.1. Brief biographical sketches of the IGC members and support staff are given in Appendix A of Volume II.

DIRCEN/CEA has provided a series of 12 documents (all available to the public and referred to here as DIRCEN/CEA Document No. 1, 2, etc.) that summarise all this information from the CEA (see listing following Chapter 1). According to DIRCEN/CEA Document No. 6, DIRCEN carried out a total of 147 underground experiments (including underground safety tests that took place in the carbonate layer) at the two atolls, yielding a total of 3.2 megatonnes (Mt), mostly on Mururoa (130 yielding 2.4 Mt and averaging 20 kt), with a small number of larger ones on Fangataufa (10 yielding 0.8 Mt and averaging 80 kt). The highest yields were below 150 kt, and more than half did not exceed 10 kt. For comparison, it may be noted that the aerial explosions over Hiroshima.