British Nuclear Testing in Australia

[1938 Observer]

Re: British Nuclear Testing in Australia

The Northern Eye documentary about Christmas Island Nuclear test Veterans and their descendants


Children of the Bomb

[1938 Observer]

Re: British Nuclear Testing in Australia

Here are a couple of interesting items on Nuclear Testing, two are partially associated with British Tests.............the third covers American use of Nuclear Testing


 The text on this page has been created from Hansard archive content, it may contain typographical errors.


Atomic Tests (British Service Men)

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12 March 1984

Volume 56








3.49 am













Mr. David Alton (Liverpool, Mossley Hill)




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I am sorry that the Minister of State who has just replied to the previous debate should have the invidious task of replying also to this one. He could be forgiven for a sense of deja vu, since only last July, in another Consolidated Fund Bill debate on this same subject—atomic explosions in the south Pacific in the 1950s — he also drew the short straw.

I make no apology for having sought to raise this important issue again. I want to return to some of the questions that I put to the Minister last July. First, I want to press him on the orders which were issued to our service men and the conditions which prevailed during those tests. Secondly, I want to question him about the faltering progress which the long-awaited survey of the personnel involved in those tests is making. Thirdly, I want to ask him what redress he believes should be made available to service men or their widows and whether he will be prepared to look again at section 10 of the Crown Proceedings Act 1947, which prevents service men from seeking compensation through the courts.
The Minister will have received from me a copy of the report of the Defence Research Policy Committee, circulated on 20 May 1953, which has been made available through the Public Record Office under the 30-year rule. This document was written in May 1953, six months after Britain's first nuclear explosion off the coast of the Monte Bello Islands in Western Australia. In October 1953 Britain tested two more devices at Emu Field in South Australia. This is among the first official records to be released on the atomic bomb tests. It says:
“"Many of these tests are of the highest importance to departments, since on their results depend the design of equipment, changes in organisation and administration, and offensive and defensive tactics."”
The report says that the Navy required information on the effects of various types of atomic explosions on ships, their contents and equipment. The RAF similarly wanted information on the effects of explosions on airfields, submarine bases and the oil industry.

Full and very extensive text is at the link


https://hansard.parliament.uk/Common...ight=australia

[1938 Observer]

Re: British Nuclear Testing in Australia

50,000 Plus views


Who would have ever guessed that this number of views would be achieved

[Glesgalass]

Re: British Nuclear Testing in Australia

I've seen film of them standing with their backs to the explosion and you can see the mushroom cloud rising.

Elda

[1938 Observer]

Re: British Nuclear Testing in Australia

Further to the above post the following is just a small section.



The UK is the last nuclear power on Earth to deny its bomb tests caused any harm. The Ministry of Defence insists hardly anyone was exposed.

But a black cloud still hangs over the 1,500 surviving veterans and an estimated 155,000 descendants. Many mistrust their government, fear every new pregnancy, and have laboured for decades with the growing belief that they were used as guinea pigs.

The psychological effect has been immense. Families also report suicides, marriage breakdowns, alcoholism and mental illness. Throughout it, the Ministry of Defence has fought its own veterans – arguing every war pension, fighting every court battle, and even denying the existence of documentary evidence only for it later to be found in their archives.

[1938 Observer]

Re: British Nuclear Testing in Australia

[B]This is a good article from "The Mirror" UK, it contains a lot of detail and is worth a quick Look [/


The Damned

The human fallout of Britain’s nuclear bombs







“
How many more generations of the damned will our politicians allow to suffer before they accept the calamities of their predecessors and the consequences of their own cowardice?

Former Mirror and People editor Richard Stott, 2002


More than 60 years ago, the UK ordered its servicemen to stand and watch as it exploded the deadliest weapons known to man. Today it is the last nuclear power on Earth to insist its radiation experiments were harmless. But a black cloud now hangs over 1,500 surviving veterans and an estimated 155,000 descendants. Mirror writer Susie Boniface, who has reported on the scandal since 2002, investigates six decades of denial.

Qite a good article from "The Mirror" [UK].................... good stories and pertinent links [once again. just for those interested.]

The link is @ https://damned.mirror.co.uk/?fbclid=...7UOCbOiU-x60_k

[1938 Observer]

Re: British Nuclear Testing in Australia

[1938 Observer]

Re: British Nuclear Testing in Australia

Review or 'cover up'? Mystery as Australia nuclear weapons tests files withdrawn :confused:

By James Griffiths, CNN


Updated 1153 GMT (1953 HKT) January 11, 2019


Just when it seemed that all the news on these events had subsided.......................here we go again...............just like the film "The Never Ending Story" :unimpressed:









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Review or 'cover up'? Mystery as Australia nuclear weapons tests files withdrawn


CNN Digital Expansion 2017. James Griffiths

By James Griffiths, CNN


Updated 1153 GMT (1953 HKT) January 11, 2019




















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A mushroom cloud rises over a nuclear testing range at Maralinga in South Australia in 1956. Many indigenous people who lived near the site knew nothing of the tests or their dangers.


A mushroom cloud rises over a nuclear testing range at Maralinga in South Australia in 1956. Many indigenous people who lived near the site knew nothing of the tests or their dangers.





(CNN) — More than 65 years since the UK began conducting secret nuclear weapons testing in the Australian Outback, scores of files about the program have been withdrawn from the country's National Archives without explanation.

The unannounced move came as a shock to many researchers and historians who rely on the files and have been campaigning to unseal the small number which remain classified.

"Many relevant UK documents have remained secret since the time of the tests, well past the conventional 30 years that government documents are normally withheld," said expert Elizabeth Tynan, author of "Atomic Thunder: The Maralinga Story".



"To now withdraw previously available documents is extremely unfortunate and hints at an attempted cover-up."

Withdrawal of the files was first noted in late December. Access to them has remained closed in the new year.




Dark legacy

The UK conducted 12 nuclear weapons tests in Australia in the 1950s and 1960s, mostly in the sparsely populated Outback of South Australia.

Information about the tests remained a tightly held secret for decades. It wasn't until a Royal Commission was formed in 1984 -- in the wake of several damning press reports -- that the damage done to indigenous people and the Australian servicemen and women who worked on the testing grounds became widely known.

Indigenous people living nearby had long complained of the effects they suffered, including after a "black mist" settled over one camp near Maralinga in the wake of the Totem I test in October 1953. The mist caused stinging eyes and skin rashes. Others vomited and suffered from diarrhea.

These claims were dismissed and ridiculed by officials for decades -- until, in the wake of the Royal Commission report, the UK agreed to pay the Australian government and the traditional owners of the Maralinga lands about AU$46 million ($30 million). The Australian authorities also paid indigenous Maralinga communities a settlement of AU$13.5 million ($9 million).

While the damage done to indigenous communities was acknowledged, much about the Totem I test -- and other tests at Maralinga and later at Emu Field -- remained secret, even before the recent withdrawal of archive documents.

"The British atomic tests in Australia did considerable harm to indigenous populations, to military and other personnel and to large parts of the country's territory. This country has every right to know exactly what the tests entailed," Tynan said. "Mysteries remain about the British nuclear tests in Australia, and these mysteries have become harder to bring to light with the closure of files by the British government."

Alan Owen, chairman of the British Nuclear Test Veterans Association, which campaigns on behalf of former servicemen, said "the removal of these documents affects not only our campaign, but affects the many academic organizations that rely on this material."

"We are very concerned that the documents will not be republished and the (Ministry of Defense) will again deny any responsibility for the effects the tests have had on our membership," Owen told CNN.



Unclear motives

Responding to a request for comment from CNN, a spokeswoman for the National Archives said the withdrawal of the Australian nuclear test files was done at the request of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA), which has ultimate responsibility over them.

The NDA said that "a collection of records has been temporarily withdrawn from general access via The National Archive at Kew as part of a review process."

"It is unclear, at this time, how long the review will take, however NDA anticipates that many of the documents will be restored to the public archive in due course," a spokeswoman said.

Jon Agar, a professor of science and technology at University College London, said the withdrawal "is not just several records but two whole classes of files, many of which had previously been open to researchers at the National Archives."

"These files are essential to any historian of the UK nuclear projects -- which of course included tests in Australia. They have been closed without proper communication or consultation," he added.

Agar shared correspondence he had with the NDA in which a spokeswoman said some files would be moved to a new archive -- Nucleus -- in the far north of Scotland. However the Nucleus archives focus on the British civil nuclear industry, and it is unclear why files on military testing would be moved there, or why those files would need to be withdrawn to do so.

Nucleus also does not offer the type of online access to its records as the National Archives does.

"Why not just copy the files if the nuclear industry needs them at Nucleus for administrative reasons? Why take them all out of public view?" Agar wrote on Twitter.




Information freedom

In correspondence with both CNN and Agar, the NDA suggested those interested in the files could file freedom of information (FOI) requests for them.

Under the 2000 Freedom of Information Act, British citizens and concerned parties are granted the "right to access recorded information held by public sector organizations."

FOI requests can be turned down if the government deems the information too sensitive or the request too expensive to process. Under a separate rule, the UK government should also declassify documents between 20 and 30 years after they were created.

According to the BBC, multiple UK government departments -- including the Home Office and Cabinet Office -- have been repeatedly condemned by auditors for their "poor," "disappointing" and "unacceptable" treatment of FOI applications.



Commenting on the nuclear documents, Maurice Frankel, director of the Campaign for Freedom of Information, a UK-based NGO, said it was "worrying that properly released records can suddenly be removed from public access without notice or explanation."

"It suggests that the historical record is fragile and transient and liable to be snatched away at any time, with or without good reason," he added.





https://edition.cnn.com/2019/01/11/a...ntl/index.html

[1938 Observer]

Re: British Nuclear Testing in Australia

This quite a large PDF file but it worth reading in its entirety....................below are a couple of paragraphs from it plus the link


INTERLUDE—ON RADIATION, SAFETY AND SECRECY
The Navy requires information on the effects of various types of atomic
explosions on ships and their contents and equipment … The Army must
discover the detailed effects of various types of explosion on equipment,
stores and men, :angry: with and without various types of protection.9
A memo from the Royal Air Force (RAF), dated 29 November 1955,
states:
During the 1957 trials, the RAF will gain invaluable experience in
handling the weapons and demonstrating at first hand the effects
of nuclear explosions on personnel and equipment.10


You will note in this segment of a large report that that the various services needed to know the effects of nuclear radiation on personnel.........both protected and unprotected!!!! :angry::angry:


Once again.....for those that are interested...............the full report is worth reading

http://press-files.anu.edu.au/downlo...nterlude01.pdf


As leading nuclear weapons campaigner Dr Tilman Ruff has noted:
There has been a consistent trend over time that the more we know about
radiation effects, the greater the evidence indicates those effects to be.
Maximum permitted radiation dose limits have never been raised over
time; they have always been lowered. For example, from 1950 to 1991,
the maximum recommended whole-body radiation annual dose limits for
radiation industry workers declined from approximately 250 to 20 mSv.19
In the 1950s, however, there was already extensive knowledge about the
hazards of radiation amongst the scientific community who worked at
the AWRE at Aldermaston. The understanding of risk was based on the
work of British physicists and biologists over decades, studies conducted
on Japanese people affected by the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
and more recent information from US nuclear testing in the Marshall
Islands, which was shared with Britain.
This information was also transmitted to British politicians and officials,
who nonetheless went out of their way to minimise public knowledge of :sly::sly::shocked:
the risks, and adopted policies that deliberately reduced the safety margins
for affected groups.

[Alastair]

Re: British Nuclear Testing in Australia

Excellent post Gordon... many thanks.

Alastair

[1938 Observer]

Re: British Nuclear Testing in Australia

[1938 Observer]

Re: British Nuclear Testing in Australia

[1938 Observer]

Re: British Nuclear Testing in Australia

[1938 Observer]

Re: British Nuclear Testing in Australia

[1938 Observer]

Re: British Nuclear Testing in Australia