Radioactive Saharan Dust Cloud Detected Over Eastern France

The dust transported from the Sahara had moved on February 6 in France, thus coloring the sky yellow and orange. The phenomenon was observed particularly in the east of the country, Lorraine and Franche-Comté. That day, Pierre Barbey, a radiation protection specialist at the University of Caen, also a scientist with the Association for Radioactivity Control in the West (ARCO), was with friends in the Jura.

"That day, it was very strange, we put on snowshoes early in the morning, the snow was white, as we walked everything changed, it lasted all day. I was with friends who were worried to see these particles covering the ground," he explains to France Télévisions. The scientist had then taken care to take samples of the atmospheric particles that littered the ground and cars.

"The result of the analysis is clear, cesium-137 is clearly identified. This is an artificial radioactive element that is therefore not naturally present in the sand and is a product resulting from the nuclear fission involved in a nuclear explosion," explains ARCO in a press release.

"Residues of radioactive pollution dating from the nuclear bomb tests carried out by France in the 1960s have been identified in this cloud," the association says, assuring that this "very low pollution" does not pose a health risk. It remains to be seen whether this cloud, which crossed France again last weekend and Monday, could also carry this low radioactive load.