Birth of a myth: the Chernobyl fallout in France

This short article explains the controversy about the radioactive fallout in France of the Chernobyl nuclear accident. In France the average dose due to Chernobyl accident represented less than 10% of the yearly dose produced by natural radioactivity, so French authorities were right not to take alarm. In Germany the radioactive fallout was 10 times as much as in france and the German authorities expected a far more important contamination. As a consequence the sanitary measures taken in Germany had nothing to do with those taken in France, that difference made journalists say that the radioactive contamination had stopped at the Franco-German border. (A.C.)