The legacy of atomic bomb testing and colonial history has come back to haunt France in the form of a radioactive Saharan dust cloud. Dust-filled winds from the Sahara Desert flew north over Spain, France, the UK, and Ireland in February. Along with bringing golden-tinged evening skies to some parts of Europe, it also delivered a slight – yet notable – spike in radiation. According to ACRO (Association for Control of Radioactivity in the West), this recent plume of lightly radioactive dust can be tightly linked to France’s colonial past and its Cold War-era atomic bombing tests.
IFLS 4th March 2021 read more »