Over 50 per cent of the uranium ore extracted from Niger is used for fuelling French nuclear power plants — this is where a third of all uranium for France’s reactors comes from.

Three out of four light bulbs in France are illuminated through Nigerien uranium. Many don’t even know that the impoverished mining towns of Niger are keeping the lights on in France. But the situation in Niger is just the reverse, where only 10 to 20 per cent people in the urban areas have access to electricity, while only 2 to 3 per cent do in the rural areas.

Areva’s mines pay no export duties on uranium, no taxes on materials and equipment used in mining operations, and a royalty of just 5.5 per cent on the uranium they produce.

For Areva, polluting Niger is cheaper than polluting France...concentration is almost 500 times higher than normal background levels. Even spending one hour per day over one year at this location can expose a person to 10 times the annual radiation dose

“Patients are often duped by the doctors who tell them that they have been affected by HIV/AIDS,... In reality, the majority of such cases are related to radioactivity”