France is said to have an arsenal of 350 nuclear weapons stockpiled as of 2002 [1]. The weapons are part of the national Force de frappe. France is one of the five "Nuclear Weapons States" (NWS) under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which France ratified in 1992. Weapons of mass destruction (WMD) generally include nuclear, biological, chemical and, increasingly, radiological weapons. ... Weapons of mass destruction (WMD) generally include nuclear, biological, chemical and, increasingly, radiological weapons. ... Biological warfare, also known as germ warfare, is the use of any organism (bacteria, virus or other disease-causing organism) or toxin found in nature, as a weapon of war. ... Chemical warfare is warfare (and associated military operations) using the toxic properties of chemical substances to kill, injure or incapacitate an enemy. ... The mushroom cloud of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Japan, 1945, rose some 18 km (11 mi) above the hypocenter. ... A radiological weapon (or radiological dispersion device, RDD) is any weapon that is designed to spread radioactive contamination, either to kill, or to deny the use of an area (a modern version of salting the earth) and consists of a device (such as a nuclear or conventional explosive) which spreads... The Peoples Republic of China is said to have an arsenal of about 400 nuclear weapons stockpiled as of 1999, although this number is questionable because the Chinese government releases little information regarding nuclear weapons. ... The Republic of China on Taiwan denies having chemical or nuclear weapons. ... The mushroom cloud of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Japan, 1945, rose some 18 km (11 mi) above the hypocenter. ... The Redoutable, the first French nuclear missile submarine // a Pluton missile mobile launcher The Force de frappe (literally Striking Force; meant for dissuasion, i. ... Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Opened for signature July 1, 1968 in New York Entered into force March 5, 1970 Conditions for entry into force Ratification by the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, the United States, and 40 other signatory states. ... 1992 (MCMXCII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday. ...

France never ratified the Partial Test Ban Treaty, leaving it open to conduct nuclear tests at will. The Treaty Banning poop, in Outer Space, and Under Water, often abbreviated as the Partial Test Ban Treaty (PTBT), Limited Test Ban Treaty (LTBT), or Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (NTBT), although the former also refers to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), is a treaty intended to obtain an agreement...

France had been one of the pioneers of nuclear physics but in 1945 it had to start again almost from scratch. The first French reactor went critical in 1948 and first plutonium was extracted in 1949 but there was no formal commitment to a nuclear weapons programme although plans were made for large scale production of plutonium. [2]

In May 1954 the French were losing the war in Indochina against Ho Chi Minh. At the height of the decisive battle at Dien Bien Phu France's nuclear bosses sent a request to the chairman of the British Atomic Energy Authority. It was a shopping list of items that would help them build nuclear weapons, including a sample quantity of plutonium "so we can take the steps preparatory to the utilisation of our own plutonium". Britain had exploded its own bomb less than two years earlier and so they realised the significance of the request.

Before the letter even arrived the French had lost the battle and the war but later that year the French prime minister, Pierre Mendes France, made the formal decision to build the atomic bomb. Britain agreed to supply the requested nuclear materials, including enriched uranium. Among the most important parts of the agreement was an arrangement for the British to check the blueprints and construction of French plutonium production reactors.

According to one source, this not only helped the French get their military plutonium reactor at Marcoule into operation quickly but it also averted a disaster, for the British found defects which could have caused a catastrophic explosion at the Rhone Valley site. The same source says that when Charles de Gaulle came to power in 1958 he personally thanked Harold Macmillan for the team's work.

There remained France's request for plutonium. In 1955 Britain agreed to export ten grams but "we would not tell the US that we were going to give the French plutonium nor about any similar cases". [3]

In 1960 after many twists and turns France’s first atom bomb was detonated in Algeria which was still a French colony at the time.

• In 1972, Greenpeace managed to delay nuclear tests by several weeks with its ship illegally trespassing in the testing zone. The skipper, David McTaggart, was beaten and severely injured by members of the French military. Later, the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior was bombed and sunk by the French DGSE in Auckland, New Zealand, as it prepared for another protest of nuclear testing in French military zones. One crew member, Fernando Pereira of Portugal, photographer, drowned on the sinking ship while attempting to recover his photographic equipment. Two members of DGSE were sentenced to 10 years imprisonment in New Zealand.

• President Chirac's decision to run a nuclear test series at Mururoa in 1996, just one year before the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty was to be signed, caused worldwide protest, including an embargo of French wine. Those last tests were meant to provide the nation with enough data to improve further nuclear technology without needing additional series of tests.

France denies currently having chemical weapons, ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) in 1995, and acceded to the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BWC) in 1984. France had also ratified the Geneva Protocol in 1926. 1972 (MCMLXXII) was a leap year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1972 calendar). ... Greenpeace is an international environmental organization founded in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada in 1971. ... David McTaggart (June 24, 1932 - March 23, 2001) was an environmentalist and founding chairman of Greenpeace International. ... Rainbow Warrior II Rainbow Warrior is the name of a series of ships operated by Greenpeace. ... The sinking of the Rainbow Warrior, codenamed Operation SATANIC, was a special operation by the action branch of the French foreign intelligence services, the Direction Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure (DGSE), carried out on July 10, 1985. ... The Direction Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure (generally known as DGSE) is Frances external intelligence agency. ... The Auckland Metropolitan Area, or Greater Auckland, in the North Island of New Zealand, is the largest urban area in New Zealand. ... A nuclear test explosion is an experiment involving the detonation of a nuclear weapon. ... Fernando Pereira (1950–July 10, 1985) was a freelance Dutch photographer who drowned when French intelligence (DGSE) used two underwater mines to sink the ship Rainbow Warrior, owned by the environmentalist organisation Greenpeace on July 10, 1985 (see sinking of the Rainbow Warrior). ... Jacques René Chirac (born November 29, 1932), French politician, is President of the French Republic. ... Moruroa (Mururura, Mururoa) (21°50S., 138°55W.) is an atoll in which forms part of the Tuamoto archipelago in French Polynesia in the southern Pacific Ocean. ... 1996 (MCMXCVI) was a leap year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year for the Eradication of Poverty. ... Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Opened for signature September 10, 1996[1] in New York Entered into force Not yet in force Conditions for entry into force The treaty will enter into force 180 days after it is ratified by all of the following 44 (Annex 2) countries: Algeria, Argentina, Australia... This article is about the economic term. ... Wine is an alcoholic beverage produced by the fermentation of grapes and grape juice. ... Dressing the wounded during a gas attack by Austin O. Spare, 1918. ... Chemical Weapons Convention Opened for signature January 13, 1993 at Paris Entered into force April 29, 1997 Conditions for entry into force Ratification by 50 states and the convening of a Preperatory Commission Parties 170 The Chemical Weapons Convention is an arms control agreement which outlaws the production, stockpiling and... 1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and on their Destruction (usually referred to as just Biological Weapons Convention, abbreviation: BWC) was the first multilateral disarmament treaty banning the production of an entire category of weapons (with exceptions for medical... 1984 (MCMLXXXIV) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or other Gases, and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare, usually called the Geneva Protocol, is a treaty to ban the use of chemical and biological weapons. ... 1926 (MCMXXVI) was a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ...

See also

Internal link

• (French) current nuclear project, codenamed "Simulation"

External links

• Britain's dirty secret - Secret papers show how Britain helped Israel make the A-bomb in the 1960s, New Statesman by Meirion Jones, 10 March 2006
• Charles Rault, A Change in the French Nuclear Doctrine ?, ISRIA, January 25, 2006.
• Nuclear Threat Initiative on France
• Nuclear Notebook: French nuclear forces, 2005, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, July/August 2005.
• Nuclear policy: France stands alone Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, July/August 2004
• Greenpeace film on the French bombing of a Greenpeace ship, the Rainbow Warrior
• Nuclear Files.org Current information on nuclear stockpiles in France