60 years ago, in the Algerian desert, an atomic bomb, equivalent to three or even four times Hiroshima, exploded. Named the “Blue Gerboise”, it was the first atomic bomb tested by France, and of hitherto unrivaled power. This 70 kiloton plutonium bomb was launched in the early morning, in the Reggane region, in southern Algeria, during the French colonial era. If this test allowed France to become the 4th nuclear power in the world, it had catastrophic repercussions. France had, at the time, certified that the radiation was well below the standard safety threshold. However, in 2013, declassified files revealed that the level of radioactivity had been much higher than announced, and had been recorded from West Africa to the south of Spain.

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In colonial Vietnam, dashing French naval captain Jean-Baptiste, wealthy plantation owner Éliane Dev...

The American Southwest holds a dark legacy as the place where nuclear weapons were invented and buil...

Japan, 1954. A legend emerges from the ashes of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, devastated by atomic bombs i...
Created in 1963 at the height of the Cold War, this Civil Defense training film uses a dramatic prem...

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TSR documentary on the 1979 expedition to Algeria in the Atakor massif (Hoggar desert), organized by...

In 1973, 6 guides from the National Ski and Mountaineering School (ENSA), including Charles Daubas a...

A look at India's second confidential nuclear test series at Pokhran lead by Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, du...

At the outbreak of the Second World War, two friends, Mokrane and Menach, abruptly interrupt their s...

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In the midst of the Algerian war for independence, a group of fighters is trapped in the mountains, ...

In Algiers in 1993, while the civil war is starting, Mrs Osmane's tenants have to endure her bad tem...

Between 1954-1962, one hundred to three hundred young French people refused to participate in the Al...

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In prison in colonial Algeria, shortly after the end of the Second World War, three indigenous cellm...