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NFLAs make plea for medal issue to Britain’s forgotten nuke test ‘Sniffers’

The Chair of the UK/Ireland Nuclear Free Local Authorities has today written to the new Veterans Minister calling for the issue of the Nuclear Test Medal to the Service and civilian personnel who were involved in monitoring the atmospheric nuclear tests carried out by the French and Chinese in the Pacific.

The date is particularly significant because it is the 73rd anniversary of the first British atom bomb test off the West coast of Australia.

The NFLAs have been strong advocates for justice and compensation for Britain’s nuclear test veterans and their families.

The Nuclear Test Medal can currently be awarded to ‘UK Service and civilian personnel, and civilians of other nations, who served at the locations where the UK atmospheric nuclear tests were conducted, including the preparatory and clear-up phases, between 1952 and 1967 inclusive’, or to their surviving relatives.

However other veterans are excluded from receiving it, including those air and naval crews who monitored the fallout clouds which followed French and Chinese atmospheric testing by flying or sailing through them, and the groundcrews who subsequently decontaminated the monitoring aircraft. They were exposed to radioactive contamination, and their health has suffered as a result.

To NFLA Chair Councillor O’Neill this seems ‘not only unjust, but also bizarre and perverse’ given these veterans faced the same dangers as their colleagues who engaged in ‘sniffing’ duties on British tests and who have received the medal.

The NFLAs have therefore made a plea to the Veterans’ Minister, Louise Sandher-Jones MP, to do justice by these excluded nuclear test ‘sniffers’, the men of 27 and 543 Squadrons RAF and the Royal Fleet Auxiliary vessel, Sir Percivale, by issuing them with the medal.

October 4, 2025 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Uncategorized