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This badge was made to be worn in protest against French nuclear testing in the Pacific. Between 1966 and 1996, the French carried out about 190 nuclear tests at Moruroa and Fangataufa Atolls in French Polynesia. These caused reef damage, landslides, subsidence, radioactive emissions, and fish poisoning.
Many people vigorously protested during the 1960s and 70s against French nuclear testing, including independent voluntary protest flotillas which sailed to the Moruroa testing zone in 1972 and 1973 at great risk.
In 1973, the New Zealand government sent Navy frigates (first the Otago and then the Canterbury) to the Moruroa testing zone, and took France to the International Court of Justice. France stopped atmospheric nuclear testing in 1974, but resumed testing underground instead until 1996.