nuclear-news

UK Council takes up the cause of atomic bomb test veterans

Nuclear test veterans’ case backed by council Shields  Gazette, 14 Jan 14 CRUSADING South Tyneside Council has taken up the cause of nuclear test veterans who were exposed to radiation in the Pacific back in the 1950s. A motion is to go before a meeting of the borough council on Thursday calling on the Government to acknowledge its debt to the servicemen.

It also urges Prime Minister David Cameron to establish a £25m benevolent fund to provide assistance for these veterans and their descendants in need.

Both the borough’s MPs, Stephen Hepburn in Jarrow and Emma Lewell-Buck for South Shields, are being asked to support the campaign. And the authority is to write to the Government’s defence secretary, Philip Hammond, urging him to heed their plea.

Today, the intervention was enthusiastically welcomed by nuclear test veteran John Taylor, 76, of Carnegie Close, South Shields.

Mr Taylor has battled for justice for years as one of the 1,000 British ex-servicemen who were exposed to radiation.

Wearing little or no protective clothing, he witnessed three nucl.ear explosions between July and September 1957, during Operation Antler……..http://www.shieldsgazette.com/news/local-news/nuclear-test-veterans-case-backed-by-council-1-6371471

January 15, 2014 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Uncategorized