The little known nuclear testing sites used by France in Algeria’s Sahara Desert

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More than sixty years after France’s nuclear tests in the Algerian Sahara, radiation still lingers in the sand. At Reggane and In Ekker, plutonium traces remain where underground detonations vented into the open air. The sites were never fully decontaminated after France’s withdrawal in 1966. Algeria now monitors them with help from the International Atomic Energy Agency, but vast areas remain off-limits to herders and researchers.

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