30 January 2026

The struggle for acknowledgement of health impacts and compensation in Gabon, with a look at compensation regulations in the US and Germany

Nuclear Monitor #934

Gunter Wippel

In the August 2025 edition, we focused on the struggle of uranium workers for recognition of health issues and compensation in Niger. In this edition, we look at this struggle in Gabon and also – for comparison – at ‘Western’ countries, the US and Germany, where there are regulations for compensation.

Often, people were unaware of the adverse impacts uranium mining, and companies and governments did not informed them. The long period of colonization which African countries had experienced, sometimes going along with brutal oppression, did not help either. The prospect of salaried jobs in often poor regions was – and is – a reason for people to work in mines.

When miners began to fall sick, died prematurely from ‘unexplained’ diseases – and started to question companies, asking for information and then compensation, they basically ran into a wall of disinformation and denial. The struggle started.

Additional Information
“GABON: UNREGULATED MINING ENDANGERS LIVES”, by WISE / NIRS Nuclear Monitor No. 616, of 1 October 2004: www.wiseinternational.org/gabon-unregulated-mining-endangers-lives/

The inglorious legacy of COGEMA in Gabon – Decommissioning of the Mounana uranium mine and mill site, compiled by WISE Uranium Project, www.wise-uranium.org/udafr.html#MOUNANA and
www.wise-uranium.org/udmoun.html

GABON

Gabon was not covered in NM921 and 922 (dealing with the current uranium mining situation) since there is no more uranium mining in Gabon since 1999.
Gabon was also part of the ‘Observatoire de Sante’ mentioned in the article on Niger.

Exploitation of uranium had started in 1960 with open-pit and underground mines at Mounana, southeastern Gabon, by Franceville Uranium Mines Company (COMUF), majority owned by French COGEMA, and continued until 1999. The underground mine’s tunnels stretch for about 30km and to a depth of 400 meters. Besides, there are several open pits and adjacent tailings.

No initial opposition or resistance against the mining of uranium is reported. People saw jobs – the health and environmental impacts would surface much later.

Company representatives and the hospital superintendent insist: “There is not a single case of an occupationally caused disease related to the uranium mining declared in our archives” ^[1].

The struggle of former workers, local people and civil society

In 2001, two years after the closure of the mining activities, former miners founded the Asscociation Mounana “to obtain recognition of occupational illnesses linked to uranium mining in Gabon. In 2005, we called on Sherpa, CRIIRAD and Médecins du Monde to help us in our fight.” The president was Jacqueline Gaudet who had lost her father, her mother and her husband to cancer; they had been living in a house built from radioactive mine tailings ^[2].

Some of the persons affected were French expatriates, they joined in the Association Mounana and former Gabonese workers formed the Cercle des Anciens Travailleurs Miniers de Mounana (Catram). Both groups made their fears known in regard to a possible link between the many pathologies which had surfaced and their former activities at the mine, and to find out what action, if any, could be taken. They approached CRIIRAD and SHERPA and became later on part of the “Observatoire de Sante”.

Reclamation work … paid for by European taxpayer instead of company …

WISE Uranium Project reports: “The reclamation work was completed in July 2004, at a total reclamation cost of Francs CFA (XOF) 7050 million (EUR 10.7 million). The reclamation work was mainly paid for by the tax payers of the European Union, rather than by COGEMA: Since 1997, (…) Gabon has been receiving a total of over EUR 50 million in aids for the development of its mining sector. Of this amount, EUR 7 million were diverted by the Gabon mining ministry for the reclamation work performed at Mounana.” ^[3]
It is difficult to understand how a company still existing, with a multi-million-€ parent company in the background, manages to get public funds for cleaning up the remains of its activities.

Impacts on Miners

“In 2006, Sherpa, in collaboration with Médecins du Monde and CRIIRAD, carried out a mission to assess the situation in Mounana. The findings were edifying in terms of the health of former mine workers and environmental damage: When the results of the mission were presented in 2007, Sherpa envisaged legal action against Areva for its ‘serious breaches of the company’s basic obligations in terms of training and prevention of risks specific to mining operations’” ^[4].

In 2009, an ‘Observatoire de Sante’ was established, same operation like in Niger. Families of mine workers and the general population in the area were not included.

An interesting detail can be found in a 2012 article by Prof. Gabrielle Hecht: She reports that one of the new directors in Gabon, … tried to follow radiation protection protocols used in his home country [France, where he had worked in uranium mines, and he used film badges to track workers’ gamma exposures and ambient dosimetry to track radon.

“Almost immediately, the monitoring system recorded high levels of both gamma and alpha radiation—sometimes up to 12 times the maximum permissible levels (MPLs) established by French regulatory bodies. … In 1968, Mokta replaced des Ligneris with its own man, Christian Guizol, who was more attuned to budget constraints. … Guizol reconfigured the calculus of exposure by simply raising the MPLs, the thresholds beyond which exposure became over-exposure. He noticed that—when applied to the specific conditions that operated at COMUF—International Labour Organization guidelines were less restrictive than those used in France. And so, after a few numerical gymnastics, Guizol enacted the equivalent of a three-fold increase in MPLs. The effect was immediate: In December 1969, 56 workers exceeded threshold exposure levels. By March 1970, not a single worker exceeded the new, higher limits.” ^[5]

Impact on families of miners and the population in general
Besides impact on miners, families living in houses built with radioactive material (from tailings) by COMUF were affected. 200 of these houses were destroyed later on, and the company had to build new ones (WISE NM 616 ³).

Over the years, approximately two million tons of tailings had been released into the Mitembe-Likedi River system, including waste water from the mill. Another four million tons were placed in the open pit at Mounana pit. A tailings dam was built only in 1990, but did not prevent overflow to get into the local river system ^[6], ^[7].

By 2004, “The company (COMUF) has done some remediation work ….” ¹and some restrictions were made in regard to the use of water etc.

The 2009 documentary “Uranium, l’héritage empoisonné” ^[8] by Dominique Hennequin shows that imposed restrictions were not effective: the local women were soaking their cassava in the Mitembe River downstream from the Ngamaboungou, whose waters have high radiological levels.

By 2011, as a result of the struggle supported by SHERPA and Medecins du Monde, Jacqueline Gaudet of Association Mounana, was compensated for the loss of members of her family by AREVA.

Media reported:

Jeune Afrique: Mine d’uranium au Gabon: Areva indemnisera des proches d’ex-salariés ^[9] (Uranium mine in Gabon: Areva to compensate relatives of former employees)
Reporterre: Areva indemnise une victime française du nucléaire ^[10] (Areva compensates French nuclear victim)

However, many victims were not compensated: “Examined by an Areva doctor and another appointed by Sherpa, 16 cases were found to be unrelated to professional activity. Four other cases were reviewed by an expert at the Court of Appeal: two were recognised and two rejected”, explains Dr Alain Acker, Areva’s Medical Director, who bases his analysis on table no. 6 of the French Social Security system.”¹⁰The reason: Whereas UNSCEAR, the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation recognizes 21 types of radiation-induced cancer, only three pathologies are recognized by the French social security system¹⁰, in fact, thus excluding many cases a proiri!

By 2017, no progress had been reached in regard to compensations.

On the occasion of the anniversary of the closure of one of the mines, journalists reported: “By the end of 2016, 367 former workers had died from ‘pulmonary respiratory infections’ linked to working in the mine, according to MATRAC, a campaign group gathering 1,618 former employees. The surviving miners, many of them old and sick, have unsuccessfully demanded compensation for 12 years in the belief they were exposed to dangerous levels of uranium contamination.” ^[11]

In 2024, February 14, COMUF’s general director, Gilles Recoche, presented a report of a study to the Minister of Mines, Gilles Nembe, saying that mining uranium would have had no impact on the health of employees. However, some common pathologies were detected.^[12]

Taking into account that the “Observatoire de Sante” had been created in 2009, it has taken 15 (!) years to prepare a study concluding that the mining activities would have had no impact on the health of miners. It is not known how many of the former miners passed away in the meantime, reducing their or their descendants respectively, chance for compensation to zero.

Additional information
“Impacts de l’exploitation minière sur les populations locales et l’environnement” by BRAINFOREST, https://brainforest-gabon.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/154-impacts_exploitation_miniere.pdf

Compensation regulations in the US and Germany

United States

Compensations for health damages of miners are – to our knowledge – only awarded in the USA and, later on, in Germany. In the US, in addition, victims of nuclear weapons testing (‘downwinders’) are also eligible for compensation.

In the US, miners and mill workers had worked since the mid-1940s in mines, many of them rather pits than proper mines, often without ventilation; many of the workers were Dine (Navajo, indigenous people in the Southwest US).
At the time, uranium was exclusively mined for the production of nuclear bombs.

When people started to fall ill from lung cancer and other diseases later on, the struggle for compensations started. It took many years and activities, lobbying and hearings till the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) was passed in 1990. (see ‘Additional information at the end of this paragraph).

Up to March 2025, 9 445 former uranium miners, mill workers and ore transporter or their descendants received compensations of US$ 943 874 500 ^[13] in compensations. The compensation is US$ 100 000 per person (or descendant).
The number of applications had been much higher: only 64.3% of the applications were approved (on average).
Some of the former uranium workers or their descendants find that RECA or its handling is not satisfactory; for example, “many uranium miners were Native Americans, and their wives did not have standard marriage licenses required to establish a legal connection to the deceased” and were thus unable to get compensation.
In general, the responsibility of the US government was acknowledged and a number of persons have been compensated.

An attempt by the current (2025) US administration to phase-out RECA did not pass: In July 2025, RECA was reauthorized and criteria for eligibility under RECA were expanded ^[14].

When in 2023 the film “Oppenheimer” was released, downwinders from New Mexico who had been refused acknowledgement spoke up: The New York Times published an article “What the [film] ‘Oppenheimer’ does not show you about the Trinity Test” ^[15], by Tina Cordova about the suffering of her community impacted by fallout from the very first US nuclear weapons test.
In 2024, she was awarded the Nuclear Free Future Award ^[16], as well as Hinamoeura Morgant-Cross from (French) Polynesia whose community shares a similar ordeal ^[17] and Benetick Kabua Maddison from Marshall Island where the US had conducted 67 nuclear weapons tests ^[18].

We pointedly mention the victims of nuclear weapons tests since nuclear bombs are one of the final products in the nuclear fuel chain, with uranium mining being its first step. Both ends of that chain are very destructive and need to be acknowledged.

Additional information
Navajo Uranium Miners Fight for Compensation, by Timothy Benally, Sr., 1999 www.inmotionmagazine.com/miners.html

The History of Uranium Mining and the Navajo People, by Prof Doug Brugge, 2002 https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3222290/

List of documents: The Navajo Uranium Mining Experience 2016-1952,
compiled by Chris Shuey, 2016, www.sric.org/uranium/navajorirf.php

GERMANY

With the reunification of East and West Germany in 1990, the task and the financial responsibility for reclamation of former East German uranium mines, operated by (former) SDAG Wismut, was adopted by the West German government, as well as taking care of former uranium workers.
Compensation issues are handled by the ‘Berufsgenossenschaft’ (BG), the employer’s liability insurance association, of West Germany.

Details on the impacts on miners, and how compensation claims are handled, see:
WISE Uranium Project www.wise-uranium.org/uwis.html#2, paragraph 2.

Between 1946 and 1990, 7 163 uranium miners who had been employed with Wismut passed away from lung cancer; for 5 237 (73%) of them, the occupational exposure was recognized as the cause of the disease. One year of work in the uranium mines during the early years (before 1955) is regarded as sufficient to attribute an observed lung cancer to the occupational exposure^[19].

After 1990, over 22 000 ‘suspicious cases’ were reported to the employer’s liability insurance (BG). Up to June 2021, about 7 900 cases were accepted as occupational diseases, and 5 300 persons were compensated with (monthly) pensions^[20].
In addition to lung cancer, quartz pneumoconiosis and larynx cancer were finally accepted as caused by radiation exposure.

Compensations are paid as (monthly) pensions, and individual amounts are not public. A regional newspaper stated that a total of 1.1 billion € were expanded for pensions and treatment of former East German uranium workers^[21] since re-unification.
A number of uranium workers were denied pensions, some of them took the matter to court, with varying degrees of success.

Note
The German Bundesamt für Strahlenschutz (BfS, Federal Office for Radiation Protection) has done much research on the relationship between radiation exposure and diseases of (former) uranium miners. BfS states “Because of its scope, the long observation period, and the wealth of available information, the study is particularly unique.”
The main studies is a ‘cohort study’ of uranium miners, the ‘Wismut Uranbergarbeiter-Kohortenstudie’: https://www.bfs.de/EN/bfs/science-research/effects-risk-ion/ongoing/wismut.html (English version)
Under “publications” numerous studies on specific issues can be found: https://www.bfs.de/EN/bfs/science-research/effects-risk-ion/ongoing/publications.html

Conclusion

Uranium workers in industrialized countries (US, Germany) were able to secure some compensation – after a long struggle in the US, and after reunification of ‘East’ and ‘West’ in Germany.
With uranium miners in the ‘Global South’, health impacts are denied, and thus compensation; the process is being dragged out. One might think that mine operators are delaying things until the workers have passed away.

[1] www.wiseinternational.org/gabon-unregulated-mining-endangers-lives/

[2] https://africanarguments.org/2017/07/a-forgotten-community-the-little-town-in-niger-keeping-the-lights-on-in-france-uranium-arlit-areva/

[3] www.wise-uranium.org/udmoun.html

[4] « Impacts de l’exploitation miniere sur les populations locales et l’environnement dans le Haut-Ogooue » (French), by BRAINFOREST https://brainforest-gabon.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/154-impacts_exploitation_miniere.pdf, page 17

[5] https://thebulletin.org/premium/2020-12/2012-an-elemental-force-uranium-production-in-africa-and-what-it-means-to-be-nuclear/

[6] https://world-nuclear.org/information-library/country-profiles/others/uranium-in-africa

[7] “Impacts de l’exploitation miniere sur les populations … » by BRAINFOREST, footnote 14, page 7

[8] https://www.dailymotion.com/video/xuydiy

[9] www.jeuneafrique.com/depeches/61732/politique/mine-duranium-au-gabon-areva-indemnisera-des-proches-dex-salaries/