Hundreds more nuclear test veterans to be honoured with medals on Remembrance Day
Veterans who tracked and photographed French and Chinese explosions in the Pacific for the Royal Air Force and Royal Fleet Auxiliary will be eligible for the medal.
More nuclear test veterans will be honoured with medals, the Government has announced ahead of Remembrance Sunday.
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Around 22,000 people were involved in experimenting with atomic and hydrogen bombs between 1952 and 1967, putting them at risk of high levels of radiation.
In 2022, then prime minister Rishi Sunak announced thousands of atomic test veterans would receive a new medal honouring their service, following years of campaigning by veterans and charities.
On Saturday, the Government said hundreds more veterans who tracked and photographed French and Chinese explosions in the Pacific for the Royal Air Force and Royal Fleet Auxiliary will also be included in those eligible for the medal, following a campaign led by the Mirror newspaper and Labrats International, the organisation which represents those affected by nuclear tests.
Defence Secretary John Healey MP said: “Our nuclear test veterans helped to build the foundations for UK’s security and the freedoms that we enjoy today.
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“The nation owes them an overdue debt of gratitude.“I am so pleased that we are delivering on our promise to recognise their contributions and making the medal available to even more veterans ahead of Remembrance.”
He continued: “Those who served on operations for French and Chinese nuclear tests are rightly also now eligible for the medal.
“This is a tribute to the tireless campaigners, led by Labrats and the Mirror, whose determination to secure recognition for these veterans has been unfailing. “Keir Starmer was the first party leader to meet with the campaigners when we were still in opposition. We pledged then to make their campaign our Labour campaign as well. It has been a privilege to work with them to secure this rightful change.”
In December 2020, the Government’s military sub-committee advised against awarding medals to atomic test veterans because they had not faced adequate risk, according to Labrats International.
In June 2021, the charity’s founder Alan Owen met with Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer and in June 2022 with then prime minister Boris Johnson.In the days before his resignation in July that year, Mr Johnson said atomic test participants deserved medals and a process to award them was under way.
Mr Sunak’s 2022 announcement regarding the new medal came after the 70th anniversary of Britain’s first successful nuclear test.The UK became the world’s third nuclear power on October 3 1952 with the success of Operation Hurricane – the detonation of a plutonium bomb on Montebello Islands in Australia.
More tests took place in the following decades at locations including Emu Field and Maralinga in Australia, Christmas and Malden Islands in Kiribati, and Nevada in the US.The bomb used in Operation Grapple Y in 1958 was more than 100 times more powerful than the explosions at Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Fiji, New Zealand, the US and France are among nations which have previously given medals to citizens involved in nuclear tests.