"For decades France denied responsibility for any health problems suffered by people who worked at its nuclear test sites in the Pacific and in Algeria. "It is the first time the French government has acknowledged a legal obligation to compensate the 150,000 military personnel and local staff who may have been exposed to radiation. "Many of the victims are suffering serious health problems. But they say the compensation plan does not go nearly far enough. "It's quite important in that for 30 years or more the French government has refused to acknowledge that there were serious hazards from its nuclear test program - that there was serious radioactive fallout and indeed that a number of workers died on the test site," he said." - Simon Hicks