Transcript
Although France passed a law in 2010 to compensate victims, its criteria were worded too narrow to be relevant. Now a review of the Loi Morin - the law named after the defence minister at the time - gives new hope.
A letter from the French Polynesian president Edourad Fritch was sent to the organisations fighting for recognition of the damage caused by the tests.
"I have the pleasure to advise you that the Council of State, based on a opinion from June 28th, has indicated that this reform will come into force immediately and that the the Nuclear Test Victims Committee will review all the cases which it had earlier rejected."
Roland Oldham is the president of the Moruroa e tatou test veterans organisation.
"Some people say that is good news but as far as I am concerned I want some precise and concrete action. I want a meeting with a calendar on all the issues, for example the Loi Morin. When is the next meeting of this committee for compensation - questions like that?"
During the election campaign in France, Emmanuel Macron vowed to settle the nuclear compensation claims and in a shock to the establishment, he described colonisation as a crime against humanity.
This feeds into the campaign of the Maohi Protestant Church, the dominant denomination in Tahiti.
To the dismay of the French administrators in Papeete, the church keeps referring to the tests as a crime against humanity.
This is now being picked up by the pro-independence opposition whose leader Oscar Temaru wants to take the Macron administration to task.
"Here is a complaint pending which is part of the case we'll look at in New York in October so that this matter can be transferred to the International Criminal Court."
A veteran anti-nuclear campaigner and former politician Tea Hirshon sees momentum building. But she doubts the motivation of those expressing concern as the anti-independence politicians for years ignored the plight of the victims.
"We are going step by step for reparation and we are far from it. I think the president is using nuclear testing also as a pressure on the French government to get more money."
For Roland Oldham, the veterans are not interested in talk.
"We have been here for so long and we know politicians so well that all I'm awaiting from them is some concrete action."
Although the weapons testing stopped in 1996, the nuclear question won't go away any time soon.
