British Nuclear Testing in Australia

[1938 Observer]

Re: British Nuclear Testing in Australia

Just a small quote from ICAN...................


Australia’s conflicted position on disarmament

The Australian government has resisted calls to ban nuclear weapons, as it claims that US nuclear weapons enhance Australia’s security. → :tongue::tongue::wink:



Here is the link to the ICAN website.....................worth reading..................if interested.


http://www.icanw.org/au/

[1938 Observer]

Re: British Nuclear Testing in Australia

COMMENT

December 9 2017


My people are still suffering from Australia's secret nuclear testing




Sue Coleman-Haseldine



Sue Coleman-Haseldine is a Kokatha woman who lives in Ceduna, South Australia. This is an extract of her speech in Oslo marking the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to ICAN.





And I was born just before the desert lands to our north were bombed by the deadliest weapons on Earth in an extensive, secretive and devastating manner by the Australian and British governments.

In the 1950s, areas known as Emu Fields and Maralinga were used to test nine full-scale atomic bombs and for 600 other nuclear tests, leaving the land highly radioactive. We weren't on ground zero, but the dust didn't stay in one place. The winds brought the poison to us and many others.

Aboriginal people, indeed many people at that time, knew nothing about the effects of radiation. We didn't know the invisible killer was falling amongst us. Six decades on, my small town of Ceduna is being called the Cancer Capital of Australia. There are so many deaths in our region of various cancers. My grand-daughter and I have had our thyroids removed, and there are many others in our area with thyroid problems. Fertility issues appear common.


But there has been no long-term assessment of the health impacts in the region and even those involved in the botched clean-ups of the test sites have no recourse because they cannot prove their illness is linked with exposure to nuclear weapons testing.


The impact of the Maralinga and Emu Fields testing has had far-reaching consequences that are still being felt today. Ask a young person from my area, "What do you think you will die from?" The answer is, "Cancer, everyone else is".


I have lived my life learning about the bomb tests and also learning that the voice of my people and others won't always be understood or heard. But I learnt from old people now gone that speaking up is important and by joining with others from many different places and backgrounds that our voices can be amplified


Through these steps I found the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), or perhaps ICAN found me.

ICAN – as an organisation, as a collective of passionate, educated people working for a clear goal – has been so important to me. To know that my story and my voice helps bring recognition to the past and can shape the future of nuclear prohibition has strengthened my resolve.

Being involved in ICAN has been a double-edged sword. On one hand and for the first time in my life, I no longer feel alone or isolated. I have met others from many parts of the globe who have similar stories and experiences and who are passionate advocates for a nuclear-free future.

But the flip side of this is my understanding of just how widespread and just how devastating the nuclear weapons legacy is across the globe. To learn that so many weapons still exist sends fear to my heart. ICAN is a worthy winner of the Nobel Peace Prize – in a short time we have gathered support for a treaty to finally outlaw nuclear weapons and help eliminate the nuclear threat.

The vision was reached in part with so many nations adopting the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in July 2017. And we should celebrate this win and the opportunity to work together to stop the suffering and assist countries to make amends to nuclear weapons victims by acknowledging the permanent damage done to land, health and culture.

Unfortunately, the Australian government, along with other first world nations, didn't even participate in the treaty negotiations, and they haven't signed the treaty yet, but over time we feel confident they will.

A lot has changed since I was born. Aboriginal people now have the right to vote in Australia, but still we battle for understanding about our culture and the Australian nuclear weapons legacy. My home is still remote and most of my people still poor. But we are also no longer alone. We have the means and the will to participate – to share and to learn and to bring about lasting change.

ICAN's work is not done, our work is not done. We will continue to work together. A world without nuclear weapons is a world we need and are creating. I stand here in hope and gratitude for the opportunity to participate. I stand here with pride and I stand here for our future and the generations to come.




From....."The Sydney Morning Herald"


http://www.smh.com.au/comment/my-peo...0171208-h01a3l

[1938 Observer]

Re: British Nuclear Testing in Australia

Is this just a "Thought Bubble" ????? , or is it just wishful thinking????..............These ideas spring up every so often..................After so many decades it would appear no lessons have been learned..................then again.................politicians and "Think Tanks" always enjoy playing "Mind Games" to further confuse the already addled political scenario....................:confused::confused:


Does Australia need a nuclear arsenal? And what would be the cost?


Nestled in the native bushland of Jervis Bay on the New South Wales south coast are the concrete footings of a nuclear power station that was never built.

The construction, which began during John Gorton's brief prime ministership in the late 1960s, was to be Australia's first foray into nuclear energy generation.

The reactor would have been able to generate plutonium which, under the auspices of the Australian Atomic Energy Commission, could be used to manufacture nuclear weapons.

But the project did not survive an abrupt change of leadership and Australia ended up riding out the remainder of the Cold War as a non-nuclear player.




Full article and a podcast is available at the link below.


https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-10-...ogram/10407610

[Alastair]

Re: British Nuclear Testing in Australia

Well the newest nuclear plants are very efficient and produce almost no waste so looks to be the way to go as they are environmentally safe now.

Alastair

[1938 Observer]

Re: British Nuclear Testing in Australia

True Alastair, however the real question is how could a nation the size of Australia could actually afford the enormous cost of installing a nuclear power plant?, that is the question I'm pondering on at the moment.


Gordon.

[Alastair]

Re: British Nuclear Testing in Australia

I believe the cost have come down significantly and it's more effective to build several smaller ones than one large one.

I did a feature article on this some time ago at: https://electricscotland.com/indepen...sip/energy.htm

Alastair

[1938 Observer]

Re: British Nuclear Testing in Australia

This story and the following videos are not of the actual testing but have a historical context of events of the day.......................


How a scared little country became a nuclear wannabe Syney Morning Herald 17 August 2002 — 10:00am


As the Howard Government revs up the rhetoric about a war against Iraq and weapons of mass destruction, a new documentary reveals how Australian governments pushed for two decades to have their own nuclear weapons.

The documentary claims the proposed nuclear power station at Jervis Bay was not designed primarily to produce energy for domestic consumption, but as the centrepiece in a secret plan to fortress Australia with a nuclear arsenal
A co-producer of the documentary, Peter Butt, said yesterday that Fortress Australia was a "story of a country fearful of its enemies and mistrustful of its allies that set out to buy, and ultimately construct, its own nuclear weapons".

He said: "With war against Iraq now likely, it's timely to confront our own sordid past, when we were once a frightened little country heading down exactly the same path, without considering the consequences."

Andrew Ross, a military analyst with the Australian Defence Studies Centre at the University of NSW, said that the notion of Fortress Australia should be put in the context of the Cold War, instability in Asia and Australia acting as part of the old British Empire. But it was true that "Australian military strategists were planning to be able to fight a nuclear war in South-East Asia in the 1960s".

The former United Nations weapons inspector Richard Butler drew another parallel: "Prime Minister Menzies had lied to Australia about the Vietnam War, but we had asked to be invited to join, just as the Howard Government is asking to be in a war against Iraq. Then Sir John Gorton, pushed by Sir Philip Baxter, Australia's Dr Strangelove, sought a nuclear option. Now the Howard Government wants to spend billions on new strike aircraft."

Sir Philip, head of the Atomic Energy Commission, predicted 30 years ago that Australia would be a lifeboat after a nuclear war around the turn of the century. Most of the northern hemisphere would be uninhabitable and Australians would have to fight off an invasion by armed refugees. He urged that "the most sophisticated and effective weapons that man could devise" be adopted.



Fortress Australia, to be screened on ABC on Thursday, draws on previously secret documents and rare film, including some bizarre footage taken in 1963 of a simulated nuclear test in North Queensland.

Wayne Reynolds, of Newcastle University, wrote last year in Australia's Bid for the Atom Bomb that Australia had hoped to secure nuclear weapons through the United States or Britain, but the big powers agreed to limit their proliferation. Dr Reynolds said "Australia's Manhattan Program" would have resulted in an Australian reactor producing weapons-grade plutonium

would have resulted in an Australian reactor producing weapons-grade plutonium.

The documentary reveals Baxter wanted Britain to fund a nuclear reactor close to the Mary Kathleen uranium mine, in north-west Queensland. In 1965, Menzies asked the Atomic Energy Commission to advise on the cost of producing
nuclear weapons. Baxter thought 30 could be produced in a year.



In 1966, the prime minister, Harold Holt, thought Australia should be as nuclear self-sufficient as possible. In 1967, Baxter sought to restrict uranium sales to Britain so that Australia could produce its own bombs.

Gorton was sworn in as Britain was withdrawing from Asia. He refused to sign the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty in 1968 and pushed for the power station at Jervis Bay.



Dr Ross, an assistant to cabinet secretary Sir John Bunting in 1971, said: "We couldn't work out why the government wanted a power station in Jervis Bay. It didn't make sense as an energy source."

After succeeding Gorton as prime minister, Billy McMahon scrapped the station. Australia signed the treaty. By the mid-1980s, it was a leader in the nuclear
disarmament campaign.



https://www.smh.com.au/national/how-...17-gdfju2.html

[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

[1938 Observer]

Re: British Nuclear Testing in Australia

[Alastair]

Re: British Nuclear Testing in Australia

Excellent post Gordon... many thanks.

Alastair

[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.