French Polynesia is a territory of more than 100 islands and atolls. It has its own government, but is still belongs to France.

At the end of French nuclear testing in 1996, former Polynesian president Gaston Flosse negotiated a $150m annual payment to support the country's economy. But now the assembly of French Polynesia is about to demand $930m in compensation over the 193 tests carried out by France in the South Pacific between 1966 and 1996. The ruling Tahoeraa Huiraatira party is against independence from France, but is endorsing an additional $132m claim for the continued occupation of two atolls used for nuclear testing, which are still not been returned.

The nuclear tests devastated the area, leaving a legacy of radioactivity still lingering. Recently declassified documents of the time show that French nuclear tests were far more toxic than has been previously acknowledged and hit a vast swath of Polynesia with radioactive fallout. The documents revealed Tahiti had "literally been showered with plutonium for two days" during the Mururoa test; from the outset France knew the impact spread further than it publicly admitted.

The present incidence of thyroid cancer and leukemia in the population is very high.