nuclear-news

Class action launched against British Government over nuclear bomb tests in Australia

By A Current Affair Staff 7 Oct 23 https://9now.nine.com.au/a-current-affair/nuclear-bomb-testing-australia-class-action-british-government/199eafe9-c774-432e-99b2-f71a96ffb696—

It’s a scandal that has spanned decades as Australian and British servicemen sent to nuclear testing sites fight to be officially recognised for their service and suffering.

Between 1952 and 1963, Great Britain carried out nuclear bomb tests in Australia and the Pacific.

Doug Brooks was at the first one.

“The only thing we were told to do was turn our backs to the blast ground zero, cover our eyes with our hands and the blast x-rayed our hands we could see the bones,” he told A Current Affair.

Tony Spruzen was at the Maralinga test range in the remote outback of South Australia.

“The brightness was so much, it’s something like I never experienced before, I could see through my eyelids, I could see the bones of my fingers,” he said.

Doug and Tony are two of the rapidly diminishing number of veterans sent to the nuclear test sites.

In total 45 tests were conducted by Britain’s Ministry of Defence – 12 of those were in Australia at the blessing of the Menzies government.

There were 22,000 servicemen in the Pacific tests. 1500 are still alive.

Now there is a new class action against the British Government.

“Well, what’s prompted it is that we’ve discovered medical records do in fact exist for these servicemen,” lawyer Matthew Jury said.

“We have a copy of these records and what that tells us is the other medical records exist which the government has been concealing for 70 years so those surviving servicemen who want answers now know that those records exist so where and the government has been concealing them.”

Jury’s firm has launched the action class and he claims records reveal the radiation levels in the blood and urine of the servicemen.

“As they have grown older they have developed extreme and aggressive forms of cancer,” Jury said.

“There have been miscarriages and other birth defects which can’t be treated by their doctors because their doctors don’t have their full medical records.”

The British Ministry of Defence hasn’t responded to requests for an interview or statement.

Watch the full story in the video player above. [on original]

October 9, 2023 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Legal, UK