British Nuclear Testing in Australia

[1938 Observer]

The Plains of Maralinga, sung by.... Alistair Hulett




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http://links.org.au/node/1484

[1938 Observer]

National Archives of Australia

British nuclear tests at Maralinga – Fact sheet 129
Between 1952 and 1963 the British Government, with the agreement and support of the Australian Government, carried out nuclear tests at three sites in Australia – the Monte Bello Islands off the Western Australian coast, and at Emu Field and Maralinga in South Australia. An official history of the tests (JL Symonds, A History of British Atomic Tests in Australia, AGPS, Canberra) was published by the Department of Resources and Energy in 1985.

Maralinga was developed as the permanent proving ground site, following a request of the British in 1954, and, after its completion in 1956, was the location of all trials conducted in Australia. It was developed as a joint facility with a shared funding arrangement. Following the two major trials (Operation Buffalo in 1956 and Operation Antler in 1957) there were a number of minor trials, assessment tests and experimental programs (dating from 1959) held at the range until 1963. Maralinga was officially closed following a clean-up operation (Operation Brumby) in 1967.

Records relating to Maralinga
Information about Maralinga is located in records created by a number of Commonwealth agencies. This information covers matters such as personnel who served in the area, security arrangements for the site, and technical and survey information (including meteorological reports).

full details are at the link>>>>>>>>>>>> http://archweb01.naa.gov.au/collecti...ets/fs129.aspx

[1938 Observer]

Maralinga sites need more repair work, files show

Philip Dorling
November 12, 2011
The Age [Australia]





MORE than a decade after the Howard government declared the clean-up of Maralinga to be finished, the Australian government is continuing to support remediation work at the former British nuclear weapons test site.

Confidential federal government files released under freedom of information also show Canberra bureaucrats have at times been primarily concerned with ''perceptions'' of radioactive contamination, while rejecting a request by the Maralinga Tjarutja Aboriginal community for a site near the Maralinga village to be cleared of high levels of toxic uranium contamination.

Files released by the Department of Resources, Energy and Tourism show that erosion of the massive Taranaki burial trench north of Maralinga, described by federal bureaucrats as ''a large radioactive waste repository'', has required significant remediation work. Other burial pits scattered across the former nuclear test range have also been subject to subsidence and erosion, exposing asbestos-contaminated debris.




While the released documents indicate ''no radiological contamination of groundwater'' has been detected, the federal government has been obliged under its 2009 agreement with Maralinga Tjarutja for the hand-back of the Maralinga test site to initiate a range of further remediation work.

The Taranaki trench was excavated in the mid-1990s and used to bury radioactive-contaminated debris and soil, principally from numerous ''minor trials'', British nuclear weapons safety and development experiments conducted between 1956 and 1963 that caused the heaviest radioactive contamination at Maralinga.

Records of a Maralinga Lands and Environmental Management Committee meeting in October last year show that ''erosion of the Taranaki trench was noted'' and that repair work funded by the Commonwealth would be carried out by the Maralinga Tjarutja. An annual survey of 85 debris pits revealed that 19 pits had been subject to erosion or subsidence, with eight requiring ''major work'' and at least four containing exposed asbestos.

A brief prepared for Resources and Energy Minister Martin Ferguson in April this year questioned the capacity of the Maralinga Tjarutja to manage the former nuclear test site.

''We understand that [the Maralinga Tjarutja's] site manager is to be replaced with a community member at the end of June 2011. While it is not for the department to dictate who fills this position, it is necessary that Maralinga Tjarutja appreciates the need for competent management of the site.''

The released files also show that the Australian government declined requests by Maralinga Tjarutja to clean up the trials site closest to the Maralinga Village.

Situated east of the Maralinga airstrip, the Kuli site was used by British nuclear weapons scientists to conduct 262 trials that explosively dispersed 7.4 tonnes of uranium into the environment.



http://www.theage.com.au/national/ma...111-1nbpp.html

[1938 Observer]

Paul Langley's Nuclear History Blog
What was known and when!

About Paul Langley
Born July 1953, Havant, England. Arrived Australia 1959. Schools: Primary: Many. Secondary: Urrbrae Agricultural High School. Employment: 70: Southern Farmers. 71-73: Aust. Army: RAEME, Radiac, 4 Base Workshop Bandiana. Seminal moments: Radiac training. French Atmospheric tests. (Unit helped in calibration of fallout detection equipment and fission product identification (Mass Spectrometre). 74- 89 Australian Government. 90 -93 – various. 94-2001 Shelter Worker, Catholic Homeless Shelter.
2001-05 Admin worker in a University. Quals: Military (Mil, tech) Cert 3 Microcomputer support, Cert 3 Youth Work, alcohol and other Drugs.

Location: Pt Willunga South Australia

Written:
9 ebooks dealing with various aspects of nuclear weapons and their use. (check National Library of Australia catalogue for list)

Favourite nuclear book:
American Ground Zero. CAROLE GALLAGHER

Quite an interesting

a sample..............................

A Note from Dennis Hayden
November 27, 2011
dennishayden44@tiscali.co.uk

Our thanks to Paul for posting the full transcript of the 24th November debate in the Scottish Parliament on the Nuclear History blog.

The UK Ministry of Defence have lost control of the understanding of the science of radiation damage to human health . In recent years they have attempted to excuse excess radiation at nuclear test locations , waste landfill sites and recently at Dalgety Bay in Scotland as due to luminous dials from buried machinery , vehicles and aircraft .

The fact of the matter is, for the benefit of nuclear industry journalists , government sponsored health protection agencies and epidemiologists, they have been overtaken by an understanding of the science of causation from inhaled and ingested radioactive partcles. When inside the body these act as ‘internal emitters ‘ irradiating tissue , organs and bone from inside the body for the lifetime of the victim .

The UK , Australian and other nuclear industry protectionist governments are fighting a desperate rearguard action to bury the truth of the science . This is a battle that is currently being lost by them in the UK courts of justice .

With regards to all

Dennis Hayden
for
The Combined Veterans’ Forum International

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Scottish Parliament
Thursday 24 November 2011
[The Presiding Officer opened the meeting at
09:15]

Nuclear Test Veterans
The Deputy Presiding Officer (Elaine Smith):
The final item of business is a members’ business
debate on motion S4M-01242, in the name of
Christina McKelvie , on nuclear test veterans. The
debate will be concluded without any question
being put. There is a current active case in relation
to this issue. To avoid straying into matters that
could be considered sub judice, members are
advised to avoid making specific references to that
active case and to issues relating directly to it.
Motion debated,
That the Parliament notes that over 20,000 servicemen
were involved when the United Kingdom carried out nuclear
weapons tests in the Pacific Ocean and at Maralinga,
Australia, between 1952 and 1967; further notes that there
are now only around 1,000 surviving British nuclear
veterans and 70 in Scotland, including in the Hamilton,
Larkhall and Stonehouse constituency, and believes that
society owes a debt to nuclear veterans and that their
unique service and contribution should be recognised in the
UK.
17:10
Christina McKelvie (Hamilton, Larkhall and
Stonehouse) (SNP): Usually when we open
debates, we say that we are delighted to be
speaking in the debate, but I open this one with a
heavy heart. I thank and pay tribute to the British
Nuclear Test Veterans Association for attending
the debate and bringing this issue not just to my
attention but to the attention of a number of my
colleagues across parties and Parliaments.
[Applause.]

Here is the link to the blog......peruse it at your leisure..........the content is quite large.


http://nuclearhistory.wordpress.com/

[1938 Observer]

The Passing of Ric Johnstone, President of the Australian Nuclear Veterans Association, Christmas Day, 2011
LEST WE FORGET.


email from Major (retired) Alan and Marion Batchelor:

Dear Friends,

It is with deep regret that we let you know of the death of Ric Johnstone (President of ANVA), yesterday afternoon Christmas day, at the Tarragal House Nursing Home, Erina.

No other details are known at this stage pending the arrival of his son, Ron, from Queensland.

Kind regards,

Alan and Marion Batchelor.

end quote.



Ric presented the case for nuclear veterans and victims without fear and with endless energy and great emotional and rational investment.

Though he was one of the very few veterans in Australia to attain some justice through successful action, he did not rest upon his own favour. Rather, he invested his life to the welfare of others, increasingly widows of veterans and their children. He never ceased explaining the case for the veterans and the case against the authorities.

Though Australia is a large country, with veterans thinly spread far and wide, and possessing diverse views, all will miss Ric badly for his total dedication to the cause. A cause made more urgent by the day.

Until nuclear veterans are fully acknowledged, the decisions of government will be made upon a false premise.

The nuclear tests constituted hazardous war-like duty, in which personnel prepared for and trained within a nuclear battlefield.

Ric entered hot zones shortly after bomb detonations, to recover target response vehicles. His duties included steamcleaning of contaminated vehicles, and for many years was the sole survivor of his squad. The direct memory of the futility of steam cleaning vehicles – forcing hot particles deeper into cracks, creases and crevices of vehicles and machines, some of which were later sold to the general public, remained with him. It was one of the many subjects he discussed with me.

A person of deep conviction, he was fearless in his expression of his views. Though rendered a civilian by nuclear service induced illness, he conducted himself over many years with the bearing any serving soldier would be expected to display. This standard of discipline marks both the standard of the Association he headed and the policies it pursued in the fight for justice.

His public statements were clear and informed. Though in contest with authorities, his statements always conveyed respect for elected leadership. This, even though many politiicians, who thought they knew it all, did not and do not behave with the same military standard bearing Ric held has a personal and intrinsic trait. His contempt for the the suppression of truth was long standing.

I am greatly saddened. Ric and I assisted the Indigenous Section of the South Australian Museum mount a Maralinga nuclear test display a few years ago. Apart from phone calls and emails, this was the first and only time I met him. His knowledge, humour, resources and networks enabled the display to be a memorable and important event which helped inform a younger generation of South Australians of their real history. It helped Australia’s nuclear victims validate their varied experiences and memories. Something authorities would rather not occur. As a result of that Museum display, Ric was invited to a radio interview at the ABC. At the last moment he told me I was participating as well. He insisted. I will transcribe the recording of that interview as soon as I can. It is his words, his record, his memories forged through his witness and insight which are important. And will remain forever important.

I will miss you Ric and so will everyone else. We will carry on.

Ric suffered at the time of the tests – abnormal blood changes, vomitting and so on. He then suffered heart disease which required the insertion of stents in the arteries of his heart. These stents eroded abnormally rapidly, surprising his doctors with the unusual reaction of his immune system. In an attempt to lengthen the life of the stents, eventually stents coated with medical radioistopes were inserted. Amazing the doctors, these stents were rapidly and severely attacked by his immune system, in complete contradiction to their expectations. Like many, many nuclear veterans, Ric suffered from the time of his nuclear service until the time of his death.

Ric’s service at Maralinga in the 1950s changed his life. He made the best of the situation of injustice he found himself in.
Though acknowledging the lies told over decades by nuclear authorities and elected politicians, Ric remained convinced that oil wars and other resource wars were a major threat – threats any service person or veteran would be well aware of. Service personnel have a life and death interest in trends which cause war. And Ric’s views, as he and I discussed them and exchanged views, were deeply rooted in the hope for a peaceful future.

Ric hoped for a safe nuclear industry and shared the common sense view that nuclear veterans suffered the fission gamma and neutron bomb bursts as well as fallout. Forced to live in canvas tents in harsh conditions, Ric and his cohort at Maralinga watched the English leadership have their air conditioned caravans washed down daily. The troops might bang the top of their tents to raise a cloud of Maralinga dust from the canvas. It’s all very well for the leadership to claim that they “were hale and hearty” after the bombings of Australia. It’s certainly not true of the veterans and affected civilians.

We have lost a fearless fighter for the truth and rights of the victims of the British nuclear bombing of Australia. A fighter who helped many. The help came in many forms, and came no matter what.

Ric’s contribution to the Howard Government’s Atomic Test Health Survey Consultative Forum was tireless, and though unhappy with many aspects, presented his views aiming for the best possible outcome possible. Alan Batchelor and others continues the fight to correct the errors in the official view which came from the snowball tossed into the proceedings by government agents.

The primary complaint being the lack of accurate dosimetry and the official ignorance of the internal contamination of veterans. Particularly from plutonium and other substances from the so called minor trials in which disarmed nuclear weapons were cooked, smashed into concrete walls in speeding railway train carriages, and blown up with TNT. These activities spread plutonium over wide areas both inside and outside the designated nuclear test areas. The resultant bomb Britain produced, the Blue Danube was obselete and out of service by the early 1960s. A lot of suffering caused for little effect. An arrogant effort to duplicate already existing weaponry. Had the USSR done to Maralinga, Emu Field and Monte Bello what the British and Australian governments did, it would have started a war and the victims would have been hailed heroes instead of being denied, hidden, given false diagnosis, suffer the “loss” of their film badges and medical records and labelled subversive and threatened, at one stage, with penalties for speaking. Ric always had a lot on his plate, as do all nuclear veterans and their families.

Ric’s gone Home, and he has been welcomed by his mates who have been waiting for him for many earthly decades in that better place.

Bye mate.

I would ask the Australian Government again: release the Maralinga hospital records in full to the families affected. Release the data in name redacted form to the people of Australia, the people who have a right to know and the people who elected you and pay you to do your duty. The Maralinga Hospital records are not lost as the government claims. They are hidden.

Ric did his duty for free. And it was a duty which came with a cost. His was a long and courageous march toward the objectives of justice and truth. He will not be forgotten.

Paul Langley



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More at the link.................. Paul Langley's Nuclear History Blog
What was known and when.

http://nuclearhistory.wordpress.com/...tmas-day-2011/

[1938 Observer]

Nuclear survivor fought to the end February 25, 2012.



Between 1952 and 1963, the British government conducted nuclear atomic tests in Australia, at Monte Bello off the coast of Western Australia and in South Australian desert at Maralinga and Emu Field.

In 1956, Ric Johnstone was 22 and a young serviceman when he was sent to Maralinga on a ''secret'' assignment as a motor mechanic. Soon he was decontaminating and assessing vehicles in the ''hot'' area after they had been used in atomic detonations. Johnstone was discharged from the RAAF, on medical grounds, in December 1957.

In the months after leaving Maralinga, he had been treated in an RAAF hospital for radiation sickness and in a repatriation hospital for an anxiety state. He married his wife, Shirley, in 1956. He and many other servicemen endured many cancers.




The claim for damages or compensation for cancer has been a continuing struggle over the years since.

Johnstone sued the Commonwealth of Australia in the Supreme Court of NSW for the psychological effects of his service and in 1988 a jury awarded him a significant amount for damages. The case was a landmark as Johnstone is so far the only veteran at the nuclear tests to have won a claim for negligence against the Commonwealth for injuries suffered during those tests.

Daryl Richard Johnstone was born on November 30, 1933, in Carlton, Victoria, to Richard Johnstone, a merchant seaman, and his wife, Sylvia (nee Handley). After the collapse of the marriage, Richard took his two children to Redcliffe in Western Australia. Ric went to East Perth State School. He spent some years as a jackaroo in the Kimberley, training as a motor mechanic.

In 1949, he joined the British and Australian merchant marine and in 1953, after serving four of the five years required for his national service in the 16th Infantry Battalion in Western Australia, he was asked to join the RAAF Combined Service Task Force because motor mechanics were needed.

The Australian Nuclear Veterans Association (ANVA) came into being in the early 1970s. At first, it was men who met socially to talk about serving at Maralinga. Because of his own legal case and because of the community work he was doing organising self-help groups for people suffering from anxiety, phobias and stress disorders, articles about Johnstone appeared in the media and this prompted some of his former Camp 43 colleagues to make contact with him.




As time went by, the men began to realise that many of the health problems they had suffered could probably be traced to Maralinga and they conceived the idea of forming an association of nuclear veterans. By the late 1970s, there were regular meetings and veterans agreed ANVA should be open to anyone who had served at any of the three nuclear test locations in Australia. Membership grew rapidly.

In March 1983, the government changed and, in 1984 and 1985, ANVA represented the main group of veterans at the Royal Commission into British Nuclear Tests in Australia.

Johnstone didn't attend the commission because of his agoraphobia but as president of ANVA, he continued the fight for recognition and compensation. The media often turned to him when the plight of the veterans was topical. When the Howard government received the recommendations of the 2003 Clarke Review of Veterans' Entitlements, it did little and, in 2008, the Labor government conducted its own review of the recommendations, again inviting veterans to make submissions.

The Veterans' Entitlement Act was amended but for the veterans the results were disappointing and frustratingly slow. Johnstone received a Veterans' Gold Card for his own injuries only months before he died.

Recently, Johnstone gave instructions to an Australian law firm to try to unite the Australian veterans in a class action by British veterans against the British Ministry of Defence. In July 2010, the British veterans were successful in persuading the court that they should be allowed to pursue their cases but in November last year, the Court of Appeal of England and Wales overturned the decision.

Ric Johnstone, who died of cancer, is survived by his sons, Daryl and Ronald, and his partner, Carmen Sofia.

Daniel Brezniak



Read more: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/nati...#ixzz1nMBss380

[1938 Observer]

Veterans lose nuclear damages bid

March 15, 2012 5:47AM "Adelaide Now"


BRITISH ex-servicemen who say they became ill from 1950s nuclear weapon tests have lost their latest legal battle.

But lawyers and relatives said the fight would go on and urged ministers to set up a compensation scheme.

More than 1000 veterans want compensation and have been battling for permission to launch damages claims for more than two years, claiming they became sick after being exposed to radiation during nuclear weapons testing in Australia, Christmas Island and the Pacific.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) is contesting veterans' complaints and denies negligence.

Veterans say they were exposed to fallout radiation from tests and say that exposure caused illness, disability or death. The MoD denies both "exposure" and "causation".

The Supreme Court, the UK's highest court, yesterday ruled in the MoD's favour after the latest round of litigation and said the majority of claims could not proceed.

A panel of seven Supreme Court justices had analysed evidence at a hearing in London in November and ruled against veterans by a 4-3 majority.

Judges expressed sympathy but concluded that veterans lacked evidence to prove links between illness and proximity to tests and said many claims had been made too late.

Lawyers are studying the ruling and trying to calculate how many claims will be able to proceed.

Veterans' relatives said they were disappointed by the ruling and called on ministers to step in.

"The government wouldn't lose one vote by compensating the British nuclear test veterans - in fact they'd win a lot," said Rose Clark, 71, of Romford, east London, whose husband Michael - a former soldier - died in 1992 aged 51 after contracting cancer.

"This is not really about money - it's about the Government acknowledging that these young men were put at risk."

"My husband was on Christmas Island and witnessed five tests. He used to say he was so close he could see the skeletons of the people standing on the beach. He was 19 then.

"We didn't think about it. But now I have no doubt now that his cancer was caused by what he was exposed to," she said.

Veterans' lawyer Neil Sampson said Britain should follow the lead of other countries and set up a "fair and just" compensation scheme.

"The approach that this government takes is to waste resources on fighting veterans rather than co-operating with them," he said.

"There are some things in life that are wrong. The approach of the Government to this issue is one of those things."

The MoD issued a statement in which a spokesman said: "The Ministry of Defence recognises the debt of gratitude we have to the servicemen who took part in the nuclear tests.

"They were important tests that helped to keep this nation secure at a difficult time in terms of nuclear technology.

"The Supreme Court ruled today in favour of the MoD that the claims brought by Nuclear Test Veterans were time barred and declined to allow the claims to proceed under the statutory discretion.

"Perhaps of greater significance is that all the justices recognised that the veterans would face great difficulty proving a causal link between illnesses suffered and attendance at the tests.

"The Supreme Court described the claims as having no reasonable prospect of success and that they were doomed to fail."

He added: "Where individual veterans are able to produce reliable evidence to raise a reasonable doubt that their illness is related to their service, they may be entitled to a War Pension."

Lord Wilson, one of the Supreme Court justices who today ruled in the MoD's favour, said veterans had lost by the "narrowest possible margin".

He told the Supreme Court hearing: "Putting the law aside for one moment, all seven members of the court would wish to record their personal sympathy for the veterans."


Once again a typical decision............ 'All Care but NO RESPONSIBILITY


http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/w...-1226299914400

[1938 Observer]

More general information.

The Maralinga atomic tests veterans – further law cases to come
Nuclear test locations in the Pacific and Australia are similar to fall out ‘ exclusion zones’ at Chernobyl , Fukushima and other nuclear reactor accident locations , the truth of the science indicates this and if that is anti – nuclear there isn’t much we can do about it . At nuclear test locations the servicemen deliberately had no protective clothing or respirators, the scientists controlling and monitoring the experiments however did .Inside the exclusion zones around crippled reactors of nuclear accidents such as Fukushima all those working there are fully protected with respirators etc and rightly so .

Our guess is the Government will continue to use legal delaying tactics to prevent the truth of the science of causation being fully debated in an open court

A Message from the Nuclear Veterans, Paul Langley’s Nuclear History Blog, Dennis Hayden, 5 April 12, THE DUST HAS SETTLED FOLLOWING THE SUPREME COURT DECISION THE UK CASE IS STILL ON GOING & UK MINISTERS’ JOY WILL BE SHORT LIVED ”…… the Government and nuclear industry will do everything in their power to keep the UK Atomic Veterans Claimants case from a full court hearing on causation . The pro or anti nuclear issue is somewhat
irrelevant because the truth of the science is the only arbiter on
facts of radiation damage to health . Fall out ingested / inhaled
alpha and beta particles into the body causes long term health
problems . Fall out radiation is totally ignored by the political /
science establishment of all nuclear weapons powers , nuclear reactor
users and uranium mining nations and is referred to by the euphemism
“low dose” radiation .

Nuclear test locations in the Pacific and Australia are similar to fall out ‘ exclusion zones’ at Chernobyl , Fukushima and other nuclear reactor accident locations , the truth of the science indicates this and if that is anti – nuclear there isn’t much we can do about it . At nuclear test locations the servicemen deliberately had no protective clothing or respirators, the scientists controlling and monitoring the experiments however did .Inside the exclusion zones around crippled reactors of nuclear accidents such as Fukushima all those working there are fully protected with respirators etc and rightly so .

Our guess is the Government will continue to use legal delaying tactics to prevent the truth of the science of causation being fully debated in an open court and , if faced with the situation where they
are unable to do this, they will perhaps , as a very last resort ,
kick the truth of ingested low level alpha and beta fall out into the
long grass by an out of court settlement before then . We believe this
is the only defence they have to prevent the truth entering the public
domain ….
the case is still on going and causation is yet to be fully debated .

The point the politicians fail to take into account is that our case is still live and on going .We have one case still proceeding to High Court another 1002 not yet statute barred and hearing before a Judge of almost 20 pension appeal cases . Therefore , it will not be
Ministers such as Andrew Robathan MP , who have the last word in
future litigation but the Judges .
http://nuclearhistory.wordpress.com/...lear-veterans/

There is more reading of interest @ the link http://antinuclear.net/2012/04/05/th...cases-to-come/