Britain’s Nuclear Bomb Scandal: Our Story - meet some of the contributors speaking out for the first time

Published: 12 November 2024

Britain's post-war nuclear weapons programme put some 39,000 servicemen, scientists and local people in close proximity to 45 nuclear bombs and hundreds of radioactive experiments.

This BBC Two film pieces together extraordinary testimony and pioneering journalism - weaving chilling allegations of decades of cover up at the heart of government with the shattering human cost of Britain's race to become a global nuclear power.

Britain's Nuclear Bomb Scandal: Our Story airs on Wednesday 20 November at 9pm on BBC Two and iPlayer

Britain's Nuclear Bomb Scandal: Our Story is the extraordinary story of Britain's post-war bomb tests and their devastating legacy for the thousands of service personnel who took part, and the impact on their families and indigenous communities.

The film reveals the full extent of the British government's nuclear tests in Australia and Christmas Island (Kiritimati) in the Pacific in the 1950s and 1960s. It exposes the debilitating health conditions that have blighted the lives of some of the veterans, descendants and indigenous Aboriginal and Gilbertese populations ever since.

Between 1952 and 1967 some 39,000 British and Commonwealth servicemen and scientists witnessed 45 atomic and hydrogen bombs and hundreds of radioactive experiments. The tests turned parts of the pristine Australian Outback and Pacific coral atolls into some of the most contaminated places in the world.

Five veterans are interviewed for the programme and in powerful testimony two describe how they were ordered by the MoD to sail or fly through atomic mushroom clouds without being protected or warned of the risks. Others talk about how they witnessed the blasts at only a nine-mile distance without any protective clothing, using their bare hands to shield their eyes, and later had to enter Ground Zero without protection.

Cancers of the liver, blood, bone, bowel, skin and brain, heart disease, leukaemia, stillbirths and generational birth defects are amongst the catalogue of medical disorders suffered by many of the survivors and their children. They've campaigned for decades to get their voices heard.

The film raises questions about the shattering consequences of Britain's race to become a global nuclear power and allegations of decades of cover up at the heart of government.

Investigative journalist Susie Boniface, who is interviewed for the documentary, has reported on the veterans for almost 20 years. Since 2022, Susie made a series of Freedom of Information requests to the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE). She forced the disclosure of 4,000 pages of top-secret documents about orders to conduct medical examinations on thousands of troops and civilians over more than a decade, and the results hidden ever since. She also unearthed some of the raw blood test data, and evidence of MoD officials misleading government ministers by denying the testing ever took place. In a significant new development, Susie has also obtained documents to show that in the 1990s case at the European Court of Human Rights, the AWE denied that blood testing was carried out during the weapons trials. The truth was hidden behind claims of national security, while the AWE and MoD told Parliament and the public it did not exist.

The programme includes the story of the 'Woomera babies'. For the first time on British television, it is revealed how the tests are believed to have impacted the small town of Woomera in South Australia, which was a military base situated around 600 kilometres from nuclear detonations. A local journalist, interviewed for the programme says Woomera may have experienced one of the highest concentrations of fall-out in the country. During the 1950s and 1960s the town saw an unexplained, high number of infant deaths and still-births. The town bears the scars of the tragedy, as row upon row of tiny graves are still in evidence at the local cemetery.

The film includes a series of contributors, many of whom are speaking for the first time about their harrowing experiences.

MF2/CT2

Documentary Contributors

Brian Unthank, 86

Kent

RAF cook Brian Unthank was delighted to be told he was going to Christmas Island, a tropical paradise where he regularly caught sharks on the reef and cooked for the whole camp to enjoy. Brian witnessed two hydrogen bombs with a combined yield equivalent to 320 Hiroshima bombs, before he returned home to a lifetime of horrifying consequences.

A few months later, blood began gushing from Brian's mouth. Within weeks he had lost all of his teeth. Brian began suffering gut problems and his wife suffered 13 late-term miscarriages. Of their surviving children, one was born with two holes in his heart, and a daughter with two wombs. Brian has had 93 skin cancers removed but they are counted, in the official government studies, as just one case of cancer.

Brian's official medical records are missing 20 years of annual medical checks covering the period of his family's ill health.

John Folkes, 89

Kent

For the first time on television, John Folkes talks about how aged 19, he was ordered to fly through the mushroom clouds of four atomic bombs. John was not supposed to, being ground crew, but was needed to operate an internal switch opening flaps to take samples for scientists as the plane entered the cloud. John was also told to enter the smoking crater to take further samples.

John's blood was tested throughout to see if radiation entered his body but he has never been told the results. Left with PTSD and permanent trembling, John's medical file has been stripped of all records from the same period.

"We saw this inferno, crimson, black smoke billowing up towards us… The cloud was rising. It was coming up at an alarming rate. I didn't think we were gonna make it. I felt so vulnerable. How we got so close and not vaporised I just don't know. This enormous shockwave flipped the aircraft over. We were more or less upside down, but climbing, fortunately away from the bomb. The shock wave undoubtedly saved our lives. Whether it was the intensity of that noise that shook or the electromagnetic pulse… my hands have shaken ever since".

Terry Quinlan, 84

Kent

Former Army driver Terry Quinlan's photo album shows a young man wearing shorts, posing proudly with his truck and friends. But when the weapons were detonated on Christmas Island there was no bravado.

"There was fear. I was frightened. They were all kids. Couple of friends of mine were wetting themselves."

Terry experienced night terrors and upon being admitted to the island hospital, he had repeated urine tests checking for ingested radiation. These results cannot be found in Terry's medical records.

Terry has severe heart problems and finally won a war pension last year but only after his surgeon found a lump of shrapnel lodged in his chest from one of the bombs. Terry joined Brian Unthank to serve the veterans' new legal claim on the government, wearing the same protection he had at Operation Grapple - a shirt, shorts and a bush hat.

Steve Purse, 51

Prestatyn, Wales

The son of veteran David Purse, who took part in radioactive experiments known as 'the Minor Trials' in Maralinga in 1963, Steve was born with a number of severe disabilities including a form of short stature. Steve's father would describe how contaminated sand would blow around the camp in the days after the tests. Steve always said he wouldn't have children, so as not to pass on the genetic damage he believed he suffered as a result of his father's service but after meeting and marrying Gina, he has a three year old son.

"He didn't escape, though. He has a genetic condition which means his teeth are crumbling. It's quite a rare condition but again fits well with our community. All the conditions are unique like mine or rare. The hope is that that's all he'll get. The worry is some of these problems come out in adolescence. That's the nature of what we deal with, with these invisible bullets that keep being fired."

John Morris, 86

Rochdale, Lancashire

John's nightmare began on February 15, 1962, when he awoke to the sound of his wife's screams and their four month old son Steven lifeless in his cot. John and Betty were questioned on suspicion of his murder before a pathologist ruled Steven had died from bronchopneumonia - a condition he showed no symptoms of. The coroner's report suggested his son's lungs may not have formed properly. The deeply traumatised couple could not bear to leave their later children unattended.

As John's granddaughter Laura prepares to have a baby of her own, John is terrified for the well-being of the new baby. Diagnosed with pernicious anaemia at the age of 26, John has been refused a war pension even though the condition is common in radiotherapy patients. John remembers five blood tests, but all are missing from his medical records.

Archie Hart, 87

Warrington, Cheshire

Archie Hart, speaks for the first time on television about his experience as part of the crew of HMS Diana, the MoD's designated 'guinea pig' ship which in 1956 was ordered to sail through the fallout of two atomic clouds for eight hours at a time. The vessel was part of an MoD experiment to test the effects of an atomic explosion on the ship and its 280 crew.

"They would have us believe that this nuclear fallout was just a gentle rain from heaven... It wasn't. It was toxic and it was deadly. It was ionising radiation. Everybody on that ship were used. You weren't given a choice in this. And if that's not being used, tell me what is."

Archie speaks about the physical toll on his body and shows his many lymphomas in the documentary. He has around 150 on his body. In his 60's Archie had a large chunk of his bowel removed after an aggressive cancer.

Alan Owen, 53

Carmarthen, Wales

Alan Owen is the son of James Owen, who served on Christmas Island as part of a series of US tests codenamed Operation Dominic. Alan's father died of a heart attack aged 52. Eighteen months later, Alan's brother, aged 31, died of the same heart condition. His sister Laura was born blind in one eye and has had tumours removed from her face. Alan, who founded the LABRATS campaign group, himself suffered a cardiac arrest two years ago.

"I was gone for eight minutes. Unfortunately my son witnessed the whole thing. He was 15 years old. I worry about my son. I worry about kids that he may have. It's a theme that runs through all of us. We're constantly living in the shadow of the bomb."

Susie Boniface

Investigative Journalist - Tonbridge, Kent

Investigative journalist Susie Boniface has reported on the nuclear war veterans for almost 20 years, in what she says has been Britain's longest-running newspaper campaign. After helping the veterans win a medal, Susie uncovered missing medical records in 2022. This year (2024) her reporting forced the Atomic Weapons Establishment to publish 4,000 pages of top-secret documents about the medical examinations carried out, including orders for thousands of men across all three armed forces to be included, raw blood test data and evidence of MoD officials misleading government ministers and the public by denying the testing ever took place. It has led to a fresh legal claim which she believes is the veterans' last hope of justice.

"What they had said all the time, that they were guinea pigs and lab rats - was right. They were experimented on as human beings during the entire course of the nuclear weapons tests."

Avon Hudson, 86

Ex-Australian Serviceman - Balaklava, South Australia

Avon Hudson is the ex-Australian serviceman turned whistleblower who exposed the extent of contamination left by the British at the Maralinga test sites. When Avon spoke to the ABC in 1976, he risked years in prison for breaching the Official Secrets Act. Speaking out was a turning point, bringing political attention to the scandal which led to the Australian government granting a Royal Commission in 1984.

Karina Lester

Adelaide, South Australia

Karina Lester's father Yami was the first person to tell the world what happened at Operation Totem, when a bomb led to a toxic black mist which poisoned waterholes, left Yami blind and allegedly killed dozens of indigenous Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara people. Karina continues her father's mission.

Professor Kevin Ruane

Canterbury, Kent

Professor Ruane specialises in twentieth-century international history, in particular the Cold War and the Nuclear Age. Professor Ruane speaks about how the race to beat a worldwide nuclear test ban led to Britain compromising safety standards in its hydrogen bomb-building programme in Australia and the South Pacific.

"America and Russia had agreed to put an end to atmospheric testing, which would have been disastrous if it happened before the UK had tested its first thermonuclear weapon. They needed to get this weapon tested before that. Those at the top were not too worried about the human cost further down the chain of command. This was a very menacing Cold War environment, which they would have felt, I think, at the time trumped some collateral human damage."

Professor Elizabeth Tynan

Townsville, Australia

Author and historian Professor Elizabeth Tynan is one of the leading contemporary experts on Britain's nuclear test programme. A former ABC journalist and correspondent for New Scientist magazine, Professor Tynan has written in devastating detail how Britain's nuclear test programme in Australia unfolded.

"Australia was left with a toxic physical and political legacy that is ongoing. It is unresolved and it has caused a great deal of harm and a great deal of sorrow to people in this country."

Professor Tynan adds that the amount of plutonium left behind in Maralinga was, "enough to kill everyone on the planet".

Colin James

Adelaide, Australia

The story of the Woomera babies, the high number of deaths of at least 68 babies and children in a military desert outpost during the nuclear testing programme has never been told before on television. Colin James, the former investigative journalist for the Adelaide Advertiser who first broke the Woomera babies story, speaks exclusively about the secrecy surrounding the deaths.

Professor Tim Mousseau

South Carolina, USA

Professor Tim Mousseau is one of the world's leading experts on the effects of radiation on living organisms and is among the most highly cited scientists in this field. Since 2000, Professor Mousseau has conducted groundbreaking research on the effects of ionizing radiation on organisms living in Chernobyl, Fukushima and other radioactive regions of the world. Professor Mousseau has edited or co-authored 13 books and 230+ scientific papers, with more than 110 papers related to Chernobyl or Fukushima studies. He is an internationally recognised authority concerning the effects of radiation on natural systems.

"One of the most important lessons we've learned from this era of atomic bomb testing is that for the men involved in the tests there is no safe distance from an atomic explosion. A question that comes up is how much did we know when these tests were being conducted and the answer is we knew enough, we knew enough to know that this was dangerous."