UK Vets

Grapple 1, Malden Island 1957

Britain’s nuclear test veterans fight for justice

An estimated 22,000 military personnel served at Britain’s nuclear tests in the central Pacific in the late 1950s.

Servicemen who observed the explosions from Christmas Island say they had no protective gear, but were ordered to turn their backs and cover their faces with their hands. Some reported the flash was so bright they could see their bones through closed eyes, like an x-ray. Others were knocked down by the blast and burned by the heat.

Combat engineer Ken McGinley (founder of the British Nuclear Test Veterans Association) said that afterwards he was ordered to clean up piles of dead birds and bomb debris. Men went swimming in the lagoon, ate fish they caught in the blast zone, and drank rainwater collected in tarpaulins – oblivious to any risk from radioactive fallout.

Some servicemen got sick while still on Christmas Island; others became ill after returning home. Some seemed fine for decades before developing cancers and other rare diseases. Nuclear test veterans reported that their wives had high rates of miscarriages and stillbirths, and their children also suffered from birth defects and unusual diseases.

Many were convinced these illnesses were related to their exposure to nuclear radiation in the Pacific. Their questions and concerns were met with silence and denial by the British government. A bid to be recognized by the European Court of Human Rights was turned down in 1998, which said it had no jurisdiction in the case.

Researcher Sue Rabbitt Roff at the University of Dundee surveyed 2,500 veterans and their children in 1999, reporting unusually high rates of infertility and birth defects.

Britain’s Sunday Mirror newspaper took on the veterans’ case in their Justice For Nuke Vets campaign led by Mirror columnist Richard Stott (1943-2007), but the government continued to deny any links between the veterans’ health and radiation exposure.

In 2007 two scientific studies demonstrated links between the veterans’ exposure to nuclear radiation and health problems:

• A Massey University study of New Zealand nuclear test veterans found genetic damage at three times the normal rate – comparable to victims of the Chernobyl nuclear accident.
• An independent study by the group Green Audit looked at long-term effects of radiation exposure in British veterans and their families, finding significantly higher rates of miscarriages and stillbirths, infant deaths, childhood cancers, and inherited genetic deformities.

As a result of the studies, 700 New Zealand and UK veterans launched a class action lawsuit against the British government claiming NZ $36 million in damages. The Ministry of Defense countered with a statute of limitations defense, saying veterans should have made any legal claims within three years of suffering an injury, a tactic that could delay the court hearing for several years.

Following a parliamentary inquiry in early 2008, the government agreed to fund new studies into veterans’ health and agreed to pay interim compensation of 4-thousand pounds each.

Of 22,000 who served during Operation Grapple, only 3,000 are still alive.

EYEWITNESS ACCOUNTS

Christopher Edward Noone, RAF
British Nuclear Test Veterans Association

It was as though the gates of hell had opened up, a curling mass of white and red-hot superheated cloud twisting and curling inside and out, covering a good percentage of the sky. It was still glowing red with heat up to half an hour later.

Ken McGinley, Combat Engineers
Jane’s Oceania

At the moment of detonation there was a flash. At that instant I was able to see straight through my hands. I could see the veins. I could see the blood, I could see all the skin tissue, I could see the bones and worst of all, I could see the flash itself. It was like looking into a white-hot diamond, a second sun.

LINKS

Britain’s nuclear test veterans win major victory in battle for justice
Sunday Mirror

Britain’s nuclear test veterans have won a major victory in the battle for justice more than 50 years after they were exposed to crippling radiation.

New call for Porton Down Nuclear test vets compensation
Sunday Mirror

They were both used as guinea pigs in Government experiments 50 years ago. But today Ken Earl has won an apology and recognition while Ken McGinley continues to suffer.

Christmas Island H-bomb controversy
BBC Inside Out

We follow one man’s journey as he tries to find out if the H-bomb test on Christmas Island witnessed half a century ago is now putting his life at risk.

500 Year Nuke Curse
Sunday Mirror

A major scientific study into the families of soldiers used as guinea pigs in Britain’s first nuclear tests shows they will suffer acute health problems for TWENTY generations.

Radiation Revelation
New Scientist

Scientists’ requests for blood tests on servicemen about to take part in British nuclear tests in the 1950s were overruled by armed forces commanders, newly declassified documents reveal.

Nuclear test veterans lose legal battle
BBC News

Veterans of British nuclear tests in the Pacific in the 1950s have lost their latest effort to establish whether their human rights were violated by the government of the day.

The dark side of the nuclear family
New Statesman

Children suffer chronic illness because grandfathers were exposed to radiation.