On November 1, Algeria’s international television channel aired a film about the “decontamination” of the site of France’s Béryl nuclear test at In Ekker: a banner, a procession of technicians in white protective suits, idle cranes—and no actual decontamination. It is a well-rehearsed routine. The same approach has kept the Gara Djebilet mine alive on screen for years, though nobody has seen it operating. The film also leaves out the most important fact: most of France’s nuclear tests in the Sahara took place after Algerian independence, with Algiers’ consent.
