Fissionline by Alan Rimmer

A preacher disappears on a road to a place that doesn’t exist on any map; two gay lovers are jailed for sending love notes by carrier pigeon...life was grim for the slave workers of Atomgrad No.1, featured in your latest fissionline, the only newspaper that gives you the low-down on all that is happening in the weird and awesome world of nuclear fission. Elsewhere, Putin’s priests bless nuclear weapons as they roll off the production lines; and the mysterious death of a British scientist who investigated the Litvinenko murder, baffles police. On other pages in this packed 52-page edition, we feature Lise Meitber, the woman who made the atomic bomb, and reveal new CIA evidence about the disappearance of aviatrix legend Amelia Earhart. Fissionline has now been in existence for an incredible five years. Our on-line edition is read all over the world, and we would like your help in continuing to make it the success it is. All our staff are volunteers, and our specialist writers give their services free. But for just £1.99 per edition, you can help it grow even more and at the same time enjoy all the news, views, gossip and features that makes fissionline such a great product. Our publishes ISSUU have made it easy to pay by debit or credit card. So why not give it a try? You’ll be assisting in a great cause. Your Sincerely, Alan Rimmer Editor.

4: Fear, paranoia and brutal repression. Life inside ATOMGRAD . 10: Thankyou Comrade Stalin for working us to death! 12: God Bless Our Nukes! Putin’s Unholy Alliance. 14: Dust Still Hasn’t Settled on Britain’s Biggest Bomb. 16: Litvinenko Expert in Suicide Riddle. 18: Nuclear Matters. 20: Nuke Vet Crusader Chris Busby’s message of hope. 24: EXCLUSIVE interview with Geneticist Yuri Dubrova. 28: Lise Meitner. The Woman Who Made the Atomic Bomb. 30: Getting Ahead in Atomic City. 32: Amelia Earhart: New Evidence. 34: We gave Our Teeth For the A-Bomb! 36: Top A-Bomb Boffin Believed in Aliens. 38: How to Drop an H-Bomb. 39: How Not to Drop an H-Bomb. 40: Russians Admit Near-Nuclear Catastrophe. 42: Aldermaston: The March That Shook the World. 44: Rudi Peierls Daughter: I Thought Father Was a Spy. 46: The Luckiest Unlucky Serviceman: Part Two.

he preacher on the road from Yerevan in Soviet Armenia was said to be under a “mystic spell” when he directed invectives against those who, according to him, had deviated from the right path indicated by the Lord and had decided to pry the secrets of nature for destructive purposes. But there was no divine intervention for the hapless cleric after he pointed toward the Zanga Valley and its sinister establishments and declared it to be the “Devil’s own workshop.” The police of X-83 arrived in short order and interrupted the preacher in mid-sermon. He was bundled into a car and driven off at great speed in the direction of the village of Akhta where he was subjected to extensive interrogation. His inquisitors were convinced they were dealing with an obvious case of espionage and wanted to know details concerning his organization. It is not known if the preacher confessed to anything, but he was never again seen on the road from Yerevan. This illuminating insight is described in an extraordinary document smuggled out of a top secret Soviet nuclear complex hidden away in the Caucasian mountains 40 miles from the Armenia capital, Yerevan, and just 230 miles from the Iranian border. The undated report, which has only recently been declassified by Western spy agencies, is an eccentric mix of low-grade intelligence, paranoia and gossip, darkly laced with a pervasive sense of fear and despair, clearly penned by someone living at the heart of the complex, which the source names as “Atomgrad No.1.”

Vladimir Putin’s chilling warning to Britain about the dangers of “threatening a nuclear power” exposes Russia’s seething resentment over the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. It left the new Russian Federation dismantled, large parts of its armour obsolete, troop numbers depleted and ships left to rust. But one thing the fiercely nationalistic country refused to compromise on was its nuclear arsenal. Russia’s nuclear weapons have always been a source of great national pride, ever since Stalin ordered a series of brutal measures to ensure that the Soviets had a nuclear capability. These included the building of a series of “secret cities” known as Atomgrads, across the country. Some of the inhabitants enjoyed special privileges, but for most it was a living hell under the dark yolk of a soul-less, autocratic regime, as our exclusive report shows.

he “sanitation zone” begins...about 10 kilome- The Gyrumush Unit (W-66), which engages in ters from Yerevan on the newly built highway the refinement of Uranium, the separation of which runs in a northeasterly direction along Uranium 235, and the extraction of plutonium, the Zanga river valley. The road is blocked off employs 10,000 people. The Kanaker Unit (Kzand Russian police carefully examine the docu- 3) , involved in plutonium research employs ments of any travelers. nearly 20,000 people. The Akhta Unit (X-83) Deeper into the territory feared N.K.V.D troops, which consists of research, study and medical under the personal command of ruthless terror training sections, employs 25,000 people. commissar Laventia Beria, form the second se- Workers cannot move from their place of work curity screen. Special agents are assigned to throughout the shift and must not fraternize arrest any person not authorized to enter cer- with workers from other sites when off-duty. tain villages In addition to in the area, these, more and shoot than 70,000 those who people , mainly show the deportees and slightest reformer POWs sistance. who are mostly Atomgrad of German, No. 1 comItalian and Ruprises four manian nationatomic instalality, were emlations built ployed in the on the sites Zanga Valley of several complex. They villages along work alongside the Zanga another group, River whose mainly scienwater retists and techLaventy Beria gives Stalin’s daughter Svetlana a cuddle in the garden sources were nicians who needed for electrifying the whole area. number about 12,000. Full powers were given to Beria by Stalin for These latter enjoyed special privileges; they the recruitment of the necessary scientists, oth- worked only eight hours a day, received plentier personnel, the procurement of material, and ful, nourishing food, and occupied homes forcithe supervision of uranium supplies from mines bly vacated by the local population when the in Tiflis and Soviet Georgia. Atomgrad project was initiated. A large part of the early installation for physical But woe betide those who broke the strict rules experiments were removed from Germany and of the plant. Disciplinary and “work deficiency” reassembled in Atomgrad No.1. Thousands of violations were punished by long periods in soldiers and POWs s were put to work con- solitary confinement , pay cuts and suspension structing the huge atomic installations needed of food rations. to refine the uranium and other ores. In more serious cases and for even the slightest No-one knows how many people were put to suspicion of espionage, the offenders were work on the site, but one unit alone, the Sa- shipped to a concentration camp. Some simply kingay Unit (known as J-7) where the raw mate- disappeared. Disciplinary procedures were rial receives preliminary refining treatment, ruthlessly enforced under the personal direcemployed more than 15,000 people on three tion of Beria, whom Stalin called “my little daily shifts. Himmler” after the head of the feared Nazi SS.

Nothing was allowed to get in the way of the relentless drive for The Bomb. The nation’s entire scientific community was put at the disposal of Atomgrad No. 1. Any equipment deemed necessary was commandeered, and the findings of all the latest research was immediately made available to the scientists working on the bomb project. But they worked in a suffocating atmosphere of suspicion, kept under constant surveillance by the N.K.V.D. Armed agents stood guard over chemists, technicians, electrical engineers and others throughout their working hours. More than 5,000 women were employed at the center, most deported from Germany to undertake menial tasks in the hospitals, recreation centers, mess halls and living accommodation. Only a very few, university graduates and those with specialist technical knowledge, were allowed to work in some departments of the atomic energy installations. They were housed in separate dormitories, but some were allowed social contact with male employees after working hours. Some were even allowed to marry, and it is reported more than 200 marriages took place over a period of time. Couples wanting to marry had to apply in writing to the local police office. Their application had to be signed by two witnesses and contain affidavits signed by the applicants’ supervisors. If the application was accepted the couple had to undergo a thorough physical examination. A police official performed the marriage ceremony and a few are “authorized to live together” in an apartment of his choosing. The newlyweds were then ordered to proceed to their new home, to “await their next work shift.” But they were the lucky ones. Most couples were not allowed to cohabit. Life, ac-

cording to the report, was generally “gloomy and painful.” The Christmas season brought no change in routine; there were no work stoppages, no special menus and no religious services. A report states several ‘charwomen’ were molested by a group of Italian workers who had smuggled vodka into their room. But no action was taken. It appears that every detail of the lives of the inhabitants of Atomgrad No. 1 was subject to paperwork beloved by bureaucrats in autocratic regimes. One docket reports: “The police detachment of unit W-66 received a communication on 12 December 1948 that during the night a woman employed at the mess hall of the first work shift had given birth to a baby girl. The communication said this was the first recorded childbirth at W66, but gave no indication whether any special arrangements were made to look after mother and child.. Another docket reports that 246 people fell ill in one monthly period, 139 of which were successfully treated in the local infirmaries within a few days, while the remainder required hospitalization. Five deaths occurred during the same period, one due to an accident, the others illness. One report recounts what happened to a young “subversive” from Lithuania who saw fit to harangue his co-workers about the evils of communism. It states: “One of the listeners tells him that he is mad, others laugh. He continues to insult the government and the police...the approaching footsteps of the roving patrol puts an end to the session.” At the end of the report the following words appeared underlined in red: “Charged with Sabotage.” The fate of the rebellious Lithuanian is not known.

Paranoia mixed with the ridiculous was a way of life in Atomgrad No.1. A bizarre report tells how one day a guard at X-83 spotted a pigeon flying into a garage and flying away shortly afterwards in a southerly direction. The alert guard noticed the same thing happening a few days later and reported the incident immediately. The matter was investigated and it was discovered the pigeon’s destination was the office of the metallurgical establishment. The guards stormed the office and arrested 32 people. A special squad was also sent out to capture the pigeon. It took some time, but the guards’ persistence paid off as a ‘small celluloid case’ was found tied to one of the pigeon’s legs. The men were ruthlessly interrogated to discover the source of the ‘nest of spies.’ The first interrogation (the report doesn’t say how many the luckless prisoners received) revealed that a mechanical draughtsman employed in the metallurgical establishment ‘had a mania’ for pigeons and had a small brood of them. The interrogation also established that he was a homosexual. He apparently used pigeons as a means of communication with a fellow worker employed in a garage of X-83. Subsequent interrogations found that the messages had been of a purely personal nature. In view of these extenuating circumstances, the report concludes, the two men were “only” deprived of freedom for three years. Pillow talk among the inhabitants of Atomgrad could have serious consequences, as illustrated in a report of a woman who foolishly displayed knowledge of things beyond her work remit. Police were alerted after she boasted to her

roommates that she knew the total number of bombs produced at X-83. An investigation ascertained the woman was familiar with technical terms she should not have been aware of as she only worked in the production of transformers. She was arrested and “upon interrogation” revealed she was the “paramour” of an engineer employed in a highly secret department. Both were sent to a concentration camp for three years and 18 months respectively. The vigilant security forces were just as busy ferreting out spies beyond the walls of Atomgrad. An alert went out when an observation post on the border at Tabriz reported that a British agent was attempting to cross the Iranian border. The report states: “Counterespionage agents swung into action and succeeded in locating the agent in an Iranian frontier town, whereupon they arranged to take him clandestinely into Soviet territory where they arrested him.” Another case concerned an American agent who, according to a report, was about to enter into Soviet territory . According to the report Soviet agents found him in Iran and offered to help him cross the frontier upon advance payment of a large sum. But the American became suspicious and escaped from his companions after they entered Soviet territory. The Soviets gave the alarm and the entire area “became alive with policemen and gunshots.” All roads were blocked and a tight dragnet was thrown around a huge area. But the American escaped; the only trace found of him was a set of footprints that indicated he had made his way deeper into Soviet territory. The report concludes tersely: “ The American never reached the Zanga valley, but it is a mystery how he was able to escape the search conducted by an entire police brigade and several able Soviet counter-espionage agents..”

odern-day ‘Atomgrads’ are every bit as secretive and oppressive as their predecessors. The most important is Arzamas-16, (now called Sarov) situated about 250 miles from Moscow. It is the Soviet equivalent of Los Alamos, and apparently the Soviet bomb scientists like to call the place “Los Arzamas .” Like Los Alamos, the Soviet Union’s first atomic bomb was assembled there. It’s detonation in 1949 shocked the West, and especially the UK, because it was thought the Soviets would not develop The Bomb until at least 1955. In the 1990s Arzamas-16 had a population of approximately 83 000. Of them 20 000 people worked at the nuclear weapons design institute, which houses the main Russian nuclear weapon and scientific research laboratories. This institute has extensive theoretical and experimental capabilities. It had a couple of American supercomputers, acquired from the Silicon Graphics, that were significantly faster than any previous supercomputers available in Soviet Union or Russia. Another 10 000 people worked at the nuclear warhead assembly plant, which produces explosive components of nuclear warheads. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union the city expanded. In 2015 this closed city had a population of 95 000. The whole city and its development and production factices are located within a hexagonal restricted area with a size of 232 square kilometres. This area is surrounded by a double barbed-wire fence. The spaces between the fences are ploughed and patrolled. The perimeter is guarded by the military. Furthermore outer defensive ring of 40 km from the

city is carefully monitored. During the Cold War in this outer ring there was an antiaircraft missile regiment, and possibly a number of other military units. The inner city is patrolled by the military and troops of Ministry of Internal Affairs. There are a number of restricted areas within the city, that house nuclear materials. These are surrounded by multiple walls and fences. Sensors are used to detect unauthorized intruders. The city has a small airfield with an unusually wide runway. People, who live in this city, as well as other closed Russian cities, have to obey strict internal rules. Until the mid 1950s, scientists, engineers and other people who took part in development and production of nuclear weapons, including their family members, could not leave the city. Even during their vacation. Some of the limitations were lifted as the city was growing up. At some point people from the Arzamas-16 were allowed to travel to the Arzamas, or other larger cities, but only on a special bus. In the Soviet Union it was nearly impossible for outsiders to get to such secret cities. Also these were completely closed for foreigners. Only relatives could visit the people living in Arzamas-16, after they received special permissions. Even today outsiders are not allowed to the city. There are strict requirements for the newcomers. All of them have to sign a nondisclosure agreement regarding their location, research/production facilities, and so on. There are believed to be five major Atomgrads across Russia, with dozens of smaller closed cities and installations.

ou got no thanks from Stalin for getting worked half to death in the grim Atomgrads...it was you that did the thanking!. A remarkable letter from the former Soviet Union’s top atomic scientists expressing their heartfelt gratitude to Stalin for supporting them in producing the atomic bomb, has come to light. The letter, recovered from a cache of documents in the Library of Congress, was sent shortly after the successful detonation of The Soviet Union’s first atomic bomb in Siberia in 1949. The huge effort, involving thousands of prisoners of war from Germany and other countries, was ruthlessly driven by Stalin who was desperate to catch up with the Americans and get an atomic bomb of his own. Nothing was allowed to stand in the way of Stalin’s ambition and untold numbers of slave workers died in the crude and dangerous conditions that existed in the uranium mines and chemical plants vital to the project. The scientists, too, were worked until they dropped, but they felt compelled to thank the old dictator for allowing them the opportunity

to do so as a translation of the letter shows: Dear Josef Vissarionovich!

We heartily thank you for the high appreciation of our work, which the Party, government and you personally awarded us. Only the daily attention, care and support that you gave us for those four-plus years of hard work have enabled us to successfully solve the task of organizing the production of nuclear energy and the creation of atomic weapons. We promise you, dear Comrade Stalin, that we will be working with even more energy and dedication on the further development of the business entrusted to us, and we shall give all our strength and knowledge to justify your confidence in us. The fawning letter, reproduced below, is signed by Igor Kurchatov, the father of the Soviet Bomb (pictured left) and several other scientists. But one signature was missing prompting the note at the upper left in Stalin’s handwriting: “Why not Riehl (the German)?” Riehl was one of the captured German scientists who had gone to work on the Soviet bomb after World War II. Riehl’s lack of signature on the letter probably had less to do with trying to offend Stalin but because he had been compartmentalized out of the project and wasn’t there to witness the final test.

ussia's Orthodox Church has strating for democratic reform and the rule of forged an unholy alliance with the law were emitting "ear piercing shrieks" Kremlin to capitalise on a remark- Both have blossomed from the relationship. able religious revival that has tak- Priests are regularly seen on television sprinen place in the country. kling holy water on bombers and even nuclear It’s estimated that more than two thirds of missiles, a blessing that reinforces Mr Putin's Russia’s 140 million population now adheres own militaristic philosophy. to the Orthodox church under its leader Patri- The Church has even supported Mr Putin's arch Kirill. repression of democracy, with a senior bishop Vladimir Putin, a proud adherent, has allowed last year comparing human rights activists to the Orthodox Church to regain much of its traitors. Tsarist magic, coinciding neatly with a huge Late last year, Sergei Taratukhin - who served upsurge five years in a Soviet gulag for in nadefying the authorities - recanttional ed, falling to his knees in front of pride the television cameras and won a country partial reprieve. He is now emis experiployed as a rubbish collector at encing. the cathedral in the far-eastern His city of Chita. methods Kirill recently officiated at a spehave cial blessing on the site of the won the Soviet’s nuclear weapons factory enthusiat Arzamas-16, where the counastic try’s first atomic bomb was support made. The ceremony took place Putin and Kirill at Arzamas Nuclear weapon site of reliin the grounds of the old Sarov gious leaders who are happy to endorse monastery, one of the Orthodox Church’s Putin’s strongarm tactics in Crimea and Syria. most holy sites which was destroyed in 1927. The relationship might seem bizarre after dec- In return, Mr Putin has worn his religious creades of brutal repression under Soviet rule. It dentials very publicly and is regularly shown was the KGB, of which Putin was a former on state television kissing icons at Church seragent, that led the persecution of the Church vices. in Soviet times, when priests were regularly Given his popularity, Mr Putin's example has jailed, tortured and executed. Neither this nor been emulated by many Russians. The busiaccusations that Mr Putin is restoring many of ness and political elite have assiduously folthe attributes of Soviet rule seem to bother lowed instructions to fund the rebuilding of Kirill. churches destroyed by the Soviets across the When Kirill was elected Patriarch of the Rus- country. sian Orthodox Church on 27 January 2009 the Last year the magnificent Assumption catheservice was attended, among others, by then dral in the Siberian city of Omsk, blown up by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, and the Bolsheviks in 1935, was rebuilt with donaPutin, who was then prime minister. tions from the city mandarins. A holy woman A close bond was clearly formed, and on 8 called Sister Varvara, a throwback to the wanFebruary 2012 at a meeting of religious lead- dering mystics such as Rasputin, lived under a ers in Moscow, Kirill described the Putin era as tree in Omsk for many years. Recently locals "a miracle of God" and criticised his oppo- helped her to build a church and many pilnents. He said that those who were demon- grims, including Putin, have visited.

ixty years ago, on April 28, 1958, Britain exploded a hydrogen bomb codenamed Grapple Y over Christmas Island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. It was Britain’s biggest bomb, carrying an explosive force of three and a half million tons of TNT. It was also the dirtiest. Official records show it set off a thunderstorm that contaminated much of the island with radioactive rain. Many of the 4,000 troops stationed there were caught in the deluge and must have received high doses of ‘rainout.’ The military and the politicians in London panicked and covered it up. The only mention was a bland statement that the results were “gratifying” to the scientists. They feared a global backlash against nuclear testing which had been building ever since an American device at Bikini Island in 1954 contaminated several islands, not to mention the unfortunate crew of a Japanese fishing boat. Just two months before the Grapple Y shot a huge demonstration and march by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament caught the politicians by surprise and brought London to a standstill. Any suggestion that Grapple Y had “gone rogue” would have been a disaster for Britain’s bomb programme, not to mention its relationship with America upon which it was depending for cash and nuclear secrets. So the government lied about what happened and denied that any radioactive contamination had taken place. But as time passed the cover-up began to unravel as the insidious effects of radiation on the nuclear veterans began to take its toll. A series of court cases was brought in a bid to get them compensation, They failed narrowly, and mainly on technicalities. But the sputtering embers of the veterans’ protest continue. In a couple of weeks time a small group of nuclear veterans and

their widows return to court in a bid to win war pensions. Nuke Vet champion Prof Chris Busby is once again leading the charge and has come up with a new approach (see pages 20-23). But the deep pockets of the Ministry of Defence, which has already spent millions of taxpayer’s money defending the court cases, and its shameful use of blatantly biased pro-nuclear expert witnesses, may once again thwart the veterans. This newspaper believes that if the nuclear veterans are to prevail, something else is needed. And we believe the key to that lies with the Grapple Y detonation. We believe there is a prima facie case of criminal negligence to be made against the British Government for the way it conducted this test. Grapple Y should never have been exploded when it was. In the government’s haste to beat a looming test ban treaty, this giant HBomb was set off in the middle of the rainy season for Christmas Island which runs from February to the end of May. It was raining on the day of the test and Met Office reports show the explosion “caused a thunderstorm.” There are many accounts, both official and unofficial, that testify to the fact that something had “gone wrong”, but these were ignored or covered-up. This newspaper has records of 2,500 nuclear veterans who complained of illness after taking part in all 21 UK atmospheric nuclear tests. Nearly half of those were at the Grapple Y test. If all available evidence concerning Grapple Y was examined in a court, we believe it would prove once and for all that radiation caused significant harm to many, many servicemen who took part in nuclear bomb tests. If that were to happen, the government would have no choice but to offer the nuclear veterans a full and heartfelt apology (as it did the families of the Hillsborough victims). Only then will the dust be allowed to settle on one of the greatest unresolved scandals of the 20th Century.

olice are looking again at the mysterious death of a radiation expert who investigated the 'assassination' of Alexander

Litvinenko, It is one of several deaths being investigated by the Metropolitan Police in the wake of the attempted murder by a nerve agent of two Russians in Salisbury which are being blamed on Russian President Vladimir Putin. Matthew Puncher, 46, was found dead five months after a trip to Russia. He bled to death at his home from multiple stab wounds inflicted by two knives. an inquest heard. A pathologist said he could not ' exclude' the possibility that someone else was involved in the death - but concluded the injuries were selfinflicted. It led a coroner to record that Dr Puncher who discovered the amount of toxic polonium inside ex-KGB agent Litvinenko after he drank poisoned tea in London in 2006 - committed suicide. Dr Puncher was found dead at his home in Drayton, Oxfordshire, in May last year with stab wounds to his arms, neck and upper abdomen. He was an expert in radiation protection dosimetry and worked for Public Health England at the UK's Atomic Energy Research Establishment at Harwell, Oxfordshire. He had been given sole responsibility over a contract with the US Federal Government for measuring polonium levels inside people who previously worked on the USSR's nuclear weapons. Head of department at Harwell, George Etherington, said Dr Puncher became concerned he had made mistakes which could land him prison as 'irrational'. Colleague George Etherington said in a statement that Dr Puncher was a senior scientist

working in the area of radiation exposure. He said: 'In February 2016 he attended a meeting in Russia and when he returned he appeared to be quiet and more confined and people told me mistakes made in mathematical analysis came to light during this meeting. 'On April 27 I could see Matt was stressed and he said he had made a mistake and he thought he could be prosecuted for not meeting the contractual commitment. 'He said it was having an effect on his marriage but said his wife was very supportive but he had been having thoughts of suicide. I told him his fears were groundless and he would look back and wonder why he worried so much.' The inquest heard Dr Puncher had told other workers about the error in his paper which was rectified in an addendum but that was something he believed was a way of 'fudging it.' He also told colleagues he thought he was having a nervous breakdown and his brain was not working. It was also revealed during the inquest that his work had been evaluated as excellent and he was in line for a bonus. However the bonus was blocked by the Human Resources department due to only a certain amount of employees being entitled to the bonus payments. He also raised concerns about the travel conditions for his journey to Russia. Detective Constable Rachel Clarke, who investigated the death, said: 'His injuries were so extensive, I didn't know how he could have inflicted them on himself without becoming unconscious so we looked at the wider circumstances.' DC Clarke said there was no evidence of a disturbance or a struggle and no evidence of anyone else's blood.

ed States and Russia each keep about 7,000 nuclear weapons.

Saudi Bomb

Putin’s new threat President Vladimir Putin said Russia has tested an array of new nuclear weapons 'invulnerable to enemy interception'. The Russian president said the weapons included a nuclear-powered cruise missile and an underwater drone. Giving his annual state of the nation address in Manezh in Moscow, Putin said the high-speed cruise missile is capable of penetrating any missile defence.

Kerrrching! The British Nuclear Tests Veterans’ Association Charity has paid a company formed by its former chairman, and the former editor of its inhouse magazine, a total of £66,206 during the financial year ending 31 March 2017. The money was paid out of a one million pound grant for research awarded to the charity out of fines imposed on banks. Several other service charities also received 1 million pound funding out of a total of £25 million put aside.

China’s Nukes There are growing concerns about China’s expansion of its nuclear arsenal and what they see as a “sprint to parity” with the United States. Some experts claim China could have built as many as 3,000 nuclear weapons, far above the estimate of Western intelligence agencies, which assume that China has between 200 and 300. As a comparison, the Unit-

Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman dropped a significant bombshell when he announced that Saudi Arabia obtaining a nuclear bomb was certain if Iran built its own bomb. It is uncertain whether Saudi Arabia has the capability of building a nuclear weapon, but the Kingdom has some scientific talents and is about to set up projects this year to build reactors, laboratories and infrastructure aimed at developing nuclear capabilities for peaceful purposes. Saudi Arabia enjoys an advantage over Iran because it has uranium in its desert, and hence does not need to buy it; and, in fact, has adopted a plan to extract it in the near future.

Radiation Smugglers Turkish authorities have detained four men they claim are part of a criminal gang in possession of large quantities of a radioactive nuclear element they had hoped to sell on the black market for over $70 million. According to the German news agency DPA the four men were found to be holding just over 3 pounds of the synthetic nuclear element Californium, which is most commonly used to kickstart nuclear reactors and in mining. The Turkish press reported that the identity of the buyer of the nuclear material remains unclear. Neither the Turkish security services, nor the Turkish Atomic Energy Authority (TAEK) have stated the origin of the highly radioactive material. Anti-smuggling police rounded up the suspects, who have been identified as criminals but whose nationalities have not been released, following a raid on the Pursaklar district of the Turkish capital Ankara.

Thyroid Cancer and I-131 Thyroid cancer accounts for a little less than 4 percent of all cancers diagnosed, but the incidence has been going up in recent years, especially among adults who were children during the atomic testing period of the 1950s. According to one report Thyroid Doses and Risk of Thyroid Cancer from Exposure to I-131 from the Nevada Test Site almost anyone diagnosed with thyroid cancer who was a child in the United States during open-air nuclear testing at the Nevada Test Site, and drank fresh milk from stores or farms, could make a case the disease was influenced by radioactive fallout, according to F. Owen Hoffman, one of the authors of the report. The largest recorded release of radioactive iodine was from the nuclear reactor accident at Chernobyl, Ukraine in 1986. This resulted in a marked increase in thyroid cancer in those who were young at the time (under 10 years old) in heavily contaminated areas of Ukraine, Belarus and Russia that are closest to the power plant. A link has also been found in people exposed to x-ray treatments, or as a result of direct radiation from the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Typically, thyroid cancer is slow-growing, highly treatable, and usually curable. About 98 out of 100 people who are diagnosed with thyroid cancer survive the disease for at least five years, and about 92 out of 100 people survive the disease for at least 20 years after diagnosis.

Arctic Reactors Russian forces are looking to expand their undersea capabilities in the Arctic region by reportedly deploying small underwater nuclear reactors in order to power sensors or other equipment including sonar network to monitor submarine activity. If any of these nuclear power systems were to fail, it could potentially cause a serious radiological incident that would impact both the United States and Can-

ada. The American military who have been training in the area to respond to crashed nuclear-powered satellites, have been alerted to the new danger.

Israel admits attack Israel has finally admitted it carried out air strikes on a suspected Syrian nuclear reactor in 2007, something which it has denied in the past. Declassified top secret military briefings revealeight F-15 fighter jets destroyed the site in the Deir el-Zour region. It hasn’t been explained why Israel had gone public with the news, but it is thought it could be a warning to arch-enemy Iran that it would not be allowed to develop its own nuclear weapons. Israeli General Gadi Eisenkot said in a statement: “The message from the 2007 attack on the reactor is that Israel will not tolerate construction that can pose an existential threat.”

Lords Defeat Nuclear Bill The British Government has been defeated twice in the House of Lords over its plans for nuclear co-operation after Brexit. Peers voted by 265 to 194 to insist the UK should not withdraw from the European nuclear agreement, Euratom, until a replacement deal is in place. They also backed a plan requiring the UK to report to Parliament regularly on its future arrangements with Euratom. MPs are likely to try and overturn the changes to the Nuclear Safeguards Bill when it returns to the Commons. Euratom, an association which is legally separate from the EU but governed by the EU's institutions, covers issues such as the transport of radioactive materials, including those used in medical treatments, or in nuclear power stations. The government has said it wants to establish a new domestic nuclear regime as well as negotiate a nuclear agreement with the EU once the UK leaves on 29 March 2019.

he June 2016 Pensions Appeals hearing in the Royal Courts of Justice was intended to be the last word on the Nuclear Veterans issue. The findings for the 14 appellants (of which I represented two—Don Battersby and Barry Smith —were intended to be automatically applicable to all test veteran pension appeals that came along in the future. To knock the issue of the test veteran illnesses on the head once and for all. In particular, it was the finding by the 2016 Tribunal under judge Sir Nicholas Blake, that the radiation doses received at the test sites in Australia and at Christmas Island were not large enough to cause cancer, or indeed any of the illnesses claimed, that laid down the law for all subsequent hearings. Additionally, any other finding of that Tribunal (e.g. which cancers cannot be caused by radiation) could be used to defeat any subsequent use of the same argument in a new determination. First let me write a few lines about justice and judges in England. Julian Assange, (Wikileaks) who is still in sanctuary at the Embassy of Ecuador in London, was recently told by a British judge that his new passport, issued by Ecuador, would not protect him from arrest if he emerged from the building. This is actually an assault on international law and the concept of passports. Assange attacked the judge for bias. He drew attention to an EU document which reported the results

of a confidential questionnaire survey where judges in all the EU States were asked if they had decided a case in a direction under pressure from the government. Britain was one of the worst, only comparable with Albania, Bulgaria and Poland for lack of independent justice. So, it was sad, but no surprise, that Blake, previously famous for the Deepcut Barracks decision not to investigate, refused to listen to our expert witnesses, ignored our Statement of Case, and effectively colluded with the Secretary of State’s lawyer, Adam Heppinstall, to avoid addressing any of the questions raised by our legal submissions. I myself subsequently made a formal complaint about Heppinstall’s behaviour to the Bar Standards Board. The 2016 First Tier Tribunal process failed to follow the Directions made by Judge Charles in December 2014 and after Blake’s disgraceful decision I applied to the First Tier (refused) and next to the Upper Tier (also refused) to appeal on this clear Point of Law. The Bar Standards Board did nothing. So, as the table from the EU study shows, England is a judicial Banana Republic.

But never give up, never surrender! If 43% of British judges are dodgy, that means 57% are not. Certainly, the late judge Hugh Stubbs was an honest and a good person. Between 2004 and 2010, I was responsible, as expert witness, in persuading him in five Pension appeals to find for the veteran. Then in 2014 Judge Charles threw me out as an expert witness and I was refused any chance to appeal that decision on a point of law. Not only that, I was fined £2700 in costs for having the temerity to try. I came back as the representative, and fielded four Professors, as expert witnesses in the new First Tier under judge Blake. Although that case was lost, a development enabled me to have another go at this. That was the death from pancreatic cancer of Trevor Butler in 2016. Trevor was one of the appellants in the 2016 list, but for a range of conditions relating to immune system and kidney damage. Needless to say, Blake threw out his appeal with the others. But Butler died from pancreatic cancer during the case. And Don Battersby, whom I was representing, and who was appealing for chronic lymphatic leukaemia, also died from pancreatic cancer during the case. Barry Smith, whose widow I represented died of pancreatic cancer too, as did Alun Wil-

liams who was one of the original appellants. So that is 4 appellants who all died from pancreatic cancer out of 14 appellants who had been selected at random. In the same way as throwing four sixes one after another in dice is extremely unlikely, this cluster of 4 pancreatic cancers is statistically impossible unless the victims had a common cause for their deaths from pancreatic cancer. It is like a 50-sided die with one of the sides being pancreatic cancer. Imagine the odds of throwing four of those in a row. We are bringing this statistical argument back to the Tribunal with an eminent statistician, Prof Roy CarrHill. But the issue of the pancreatic cancers is ludicrous at the outset. Two of these, Battersby and Williams, had been given pensions for their pancreatic cancer (by Stubbs and following Stubbs) and two had been refused: told by Blake (relying on evidence from Geraldine Thomas, a biochemist) that pancreatic cancer cannot be caused by radiation. What a farce. However, the question is: how to proceed in a legal atmosphere constrained by the precedent set by Blake. It is no good saying that Prof Geraldine Thomas is a dishonest, ignorant and biased scientist, in no way an expert in any area she gave evidence on, and that nothing she said could be relied upon. In English law, a judge can find that Black is White, and you cannot come along afterwards and say that it isn’t.

These radiation dose arguments, were all laid to rest by Blake. We have to find a way round. And there is one. It is based on avoiding the concept of radiation dose altogether and focusing on a new approach, chemistry, or specifically the interaction between chemistry and radiation: Radiochemical Genotoxicity. This is a perfectly valid argument. It is emerging science in the last 20 years that certain radioactive materials, when ingested or inhaled, are chemically attracted to DNA. It is damage to DNA, in the form of mutations, that results in cells that become cancerous. The radiation “doses” delivered by these substances, and calculated painstakingly by the SSD witnesses using the current radiation model, are of little use in predicting or explaining the genetic damage they cause, because it is a combination of their chemical identity and form which is responsible for their genotoxicity, their ability to introduce cancer-causing mutations. The most important of these is Uranium. The Uranium content of the Christmas Island bombs was obtained for us from the MoD by judge Stubbs in 2012. He had to threaten the MoD to get the data, which was secret. In the Blake hearing, the SSD finally conceded that these data showed that 95% of all the solid material from the bombs at Christmas Island was Uranium, and that it amounted to 8 tonnes. It fell out as nanoparticles, on the island and in the sea. The material from the sea washed ashore on the island, contaminating the coast and coastal lagoons through sea-to-land transfer. It was inhaled from the air and ingested from contaminated water and food. So our new case is based on Uranium; it entirely by-passes all the argument about “dose”

on which previous appeals were fought. It is the chemical composition and genetic effects of the internal Uranium which is now the issue. The Blake Determination is therefore irrelevant, except insofar as we can employ previous reports by both our experts and other experts to argue that there was Uranium contamination. And there is plenty of evidence for that. U-235, the fissile isotope in the bombs was even measured in the south west coastal area by the New Zealand surveys in the 1980s, but was wrongly characterised as Radium dial material, a cover-up that continues. I trekked down to the Case management hearing in London on 31st January, presided over by a new Judge, Fiona Monk. The MoD began by asking that Blake’s decision about what cancers could not be caused by radiation should be accepted by any new Tribunal. Amazingly, she refused: saying that each case must be re-heard on its merits. Then I said that we were bringing in a new argument— radiochemical genotoxicity. This naturally upset the defence; but the judge said we could bring in our new evidence and experts, and that we had 28 days to do so and send it to the defence. The Secretary of State then had 28 days to respond. I prepared a Statement of Case for Trevor Butler in the allotted time, and presented expert reports by Dr Keith Baverstock, who has kindly agreed to act as expert witness, and by Prof Roy CarrHill, the eminent statistician. But the SSD (as usual, and as usual without any application or explanation) is now out of time. There are 28 outstanding cases. Most of them are represented by the Royal British Legion. They have no defence against the argument that the radiation doses were too small, and I believe that they will all go down on this. But for Trevor Butler we have shifted the goalposts.

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f Yuri Dubrova , one of the orld’s leading geneticists, ocked scientific opinion by oving the DNA of children f Chernobyl parents was maged. He is now investiting the DNA of children of vicemen who took part in itish A-Bomb tests in the 50s. But persuading famies of nuclear veterans to e part in this vital work is ving no easy task, as he exins in this exclusive interew with fissionline editor Alan Rimmer

Uri Dubrova sits in his laboratory at Leicester University and can hardly contain his impatience as he waits for the first samples of blood to be delivered. It’s been nearly a year since he was commissioned to do the work with still no sign of the all-important samples that will enable he and his team to begin mapping the ‘cursed’ genes of the children of nuclear veterans. “It is proving very difficult to get the samples.” he says. “Very difficult indeed. We are part of a consortium of universities that are carrying out work on the DNA of UK veterans. There is a data base that can be accessed by colleagues from Brunel University who are looking for suitable families to take part in the study. Those chosen are being approached by the NHS asking them to provide samples for the study. “But very few have provided samples. It’s very difficult. Meanwhile all we can do is wait. We are running a few preliminary experiments here to test the techniques and so on. So we are ready. We are just waiting now for the samples to drop into our lap.” Ukranian Prof Dubrova, caused an earthquake in established scientific thinking with an article in Nature which turned on its head our understanding of lowdose ionising radiation. To the consternation of pro-nuclear scientists, his research found a statistically significant increase in DNA mutation rates in the children of parents who received a high dose of radiation from the Chernobyl accident. This unexpected finding confounded studies by James V. Neel and others that pointed to no significant inherited genetic effects among the offspring of Japanese A-Bomb survivors.

Now Dubrova is set to upset the scientific applecart once again. Using revolutionary new techniques he will be delving deeper than ever into the gene pool of veterans and their children to see if exposure to relatively low levels of radiation has affected future generations. It is the first time a major study has taken place into the children of A-bomb tests participants. The work will be a logical follow-on to the ground-breaking 2007 Massey University study, by Prof Al Rowland, that showed a three-fold increase in chromosome damage to New Zea-

land sailors who took part in the Christmas Island H-Bomb tests, over a matched control group of men of the same age who did not take part. Rowland concluded that this could only have come about because of the veterans’ close proximity to the bomb tests. Veterans seized upon the results as proof that they were exposed to unacceptable levels of radiation and were therefore harmed by the A-bomb tests. But Prof Dubrova although impressed by Rowland’s work, is not convinced about the effect it had on the men’s health. He said: “I think the results of the Rowland study are pretty well convincing, and some effects of the radiation did damage these people. It showed there was elevated damage in the chromosome of the veterans who took part in the Christmas Island

tests. But this is actually expected given the radiation doses which they received. They were not far from the tests so by definition they received a certain amount of radiation, but the doses were not high. “But as far as their health status is concerned I don’t think that there is enough evidence to show that the exposure to tests substantially screwed up their health.” Prof Dubrova said the new research included work to be carried out by Brunel University. He said: “Our colleagues at Brunel, as the main centre for the study, will receive blood samples. They will examine one part of blood… it will be split in two, one half will go to them, another half will go to me. Brunel will be doing a very thorough analysis of the chromosomes using the most up to date techniques in the analysis of chromosome stability and integrity. “We will be using the most up to date whole genomic sequencing to test it. This is a multitask approach which will also involve the Tropical School of Medicine who will do the epidemiology. At the end of the day we will pull all the data together to see what’s up. It is a very fascinating thing. We are quite fascinated here whatever the outcome of this study.” The study group is looking for 50 families of nuclear veterans, including one child, to give blood samples for analysis. At the same time they will be trying to find a similar number of servicemen who served in the tropics at the same time. To eliminate ‘bias’ ex-servicemen cannot volunteer to take part.

Prof Dubrova said the new techniques would not be able to identify if chromosome damage in the DNA of the children was a result of their father’s involvement in the bomb tests. “This will be a pure statistics,” he said. “In each family we are looking for a number of mutations which the child got from their parents. These mutations arise in their germ line i.e. in sperms cells and eggs. What we call genome mutations. We count them and then we finally estimate the frequency of genome mutations in the children of families of UK servicemen not at the tests and compare them with the children of nuclear veterans. And if we see that the frequency is higher in the families of veterans, significantly higher, then we can make some predictions— whether this can be related to their exposure or not and so on. So it is a multi-stage process; first of all to get the data, secondly to compare the frequencies, and if we see some differences, to analyse it. So it is a long way ahead. It’s complicated, but life is complicated by definition. “If the results were the same as Rowland, that would mean that exposure to radiation can affect the genes. Nothing else. There are plenty of possibilities, but I am very reluctant to speculate. My approach always is show the data and only then can I start making some

assumptions. When I hear the data only then can I analyse it. “If I analyse a blood sample taken from whoever, looking at say 100-200 cells from the blood, I can find a certain percentage of cells containing broken chromosomes. When I have 100 people who haven’t been exposed to factor X and another 100 people who have been exposed to factor X. So for example if in those exposed I see not one per cent, but two per cent so it is a two-fold increase. And it is significant statistically. But I cannot figure out which broken chromosome is broken because of the history of my exposure to factor X. It could be just spontaneous. So all we can judge from these studies is a comparison of numbers. “At the end of the day we can have a look and we may find for example some very rare types of concentrations in the blood samples, and the exposed group is only reached by this rare type. Knowing the way factor X affects chromosomes I can make some predictions, but nothing else. Professor Dubrova said the study would be a long process, at least two years, and only then if they started to get the blood samples soon. He said they hoped to get some samples to analyse by the end of the Spring. “But we don’t have any at the moment,” he added.

ot long after the second world war with the realised that splitting Uranium 235 with neuashes of Hiroshima and Nagasaki still smoul- trons would release mass in the form of enerdering, U.S. President Harry Truman was in- gy (E=Mc2) which would cause an enormoustroduced to a frail-looking Austrian woman ly powerful explosive chain reaction under at a formal dinner in New York. On being told the right conditions. the woman’s name, he said in an awestruck When Hahn heard about the revelation he is voice: “So, you’re the little lady who got us said to have smote his forehead and cried: into all of this!” “Oh what idiots we have all been. Oh but this The ‘little lady’ was Lise Meitner, an Austrian is wonderful!” He urged Meitner and Frisch physicist who confounded her more illustri- to write a paper about their findings...but ous contemporaries with a flash of genius also went ahead and wrote his own paper that led to the discovery of fission, the pro- with the help of fellow chemist Fritz Strasscess by which atoms split producing enor- mann. mous amounts of energy. This paper found its way to the USA where In 1939, she and her nephew Otto Frisch, other world-renowned scientists soon who were both Jewreached the same ish, were refugees conclusion. It was from Nazi Germany this, more than anyand living in Sweden. thing, that led to the Up until then Meitner, formation of the had been working in Manhattan Project Berlin for 30 years and the birth of the with the famous atomic bomb. Meitchemist Otto Hahn. ner was offered a poThe pair had been exsition but refused perimenting on bomwith the defiant barding uranium with words "I will have neutrons and studying nothing to do with a Dr Lise Meitner at a dinner with President Truman the radioactive subbomb!” stances that were formed, when faced with But she couldn’t escape the atomic genie her arrest, she was forced to flee. genius had released from the bottle. The atThe two scientists continued to correspond, tacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki gave her however. In particular Bohr was baffled by unwanted press coverage. To her immense experiments that appeared to show that sub- annoyance, she was called "the mother of stances like barium, well below uranium in the bomb" and a false story was circulated the atomic scale, would be formed by the around the world that she fled Germany with impact of a neutron. bomb blueprints in her purse. This falsehood This flew in the face of all known laws of na- persisted for a year following her trip to the ture, until Meitner had the flash of genius United States where during a lecture tour, that would change the world forever. Her she was asked to supervise production of a nephew Otto Frisch described what hap- movie based on this lie called The Beginning pened in his memoirs:or the End. Lise refused, stating that "I would “Lise was studying the letter from Hahn rather walk naked down Broadway.” about how barium had been formed from This reticence, and the fact that she was a uranium and was as baffled as anyone. We woman, resulted in her being overlooked decided to go out for a walk in the snow to when On November 15, 1945, Otto Hahn and think about it further. We sat down on a tree only Otto Hahn was awarded the Nobel Prize trunk and Lise started making calculations on in Chemistry for the discovery of nuclear fisa piece of paper.” sion. Lise Meitner died aged 89 in Cambridge, Meitner’s “Eureka” moment came when she England.

It is amazing what a girl would do to get a head in the early days of Las Vegas, as these remarkable photos show. The ’atomic hairdo’ was the brainchild of the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce which was desperate to promote the town which had a population fewer than 25,000. The town soon transformed itself into Atomic City USA with atomic cocktails, pageants and atomic parties. There was even a young rock n' roller playing nightly who was billed as America’s only atomic powered singer. His real name was Elvis Presley. And there were the beauty pageants and pin-up girls. The constant stream of nuclear bomb tests taking place thirty miles away in the middle of the desert was seen as a perfect marketing opportunity for the city fathers. As more and more gamblers were attracted to the resort, tables were laid out on the mesas for the gamblers to sit and watch the mushroom clouds blooming on the horizon. Calendars advertising detonation times and best spots to watch the explosions were distributed. The gambler’s wives, however, were more

interested in the luxurious beauty salons that sprang up in the new plush hotels along the famous Las Vegas strip.. While Miss Atomic Bomb was the most famous apocalyptic pin-up girl, she was not the first. Candyce King (pictured above), was named Miss Atomic Blast for her atomic hairdos and headgear. Her photo appeared in newspapers nationwide with a caption declaring her to be "radiating loveliness instead of deadly atomic particles." she was also awarded a ten-pound bag of real mushrooms by the Pennsylvania Mushroom Growers Association. In 1953, a Miss Paula Harris rode a parade float in a huge atomic blast beehive hairdo, as "Miss A-Bomb." In 1955, there was "Mis-Cue," a play on the frequent delays in bomb detonations that occurred. Mis-Cue was a Copa showgirl named Linda Lawson who would go on to a long and varied performing career. Latching onto the Chamber of Commerce's enthusiasm, hotels began hawking their roofs and north-facing penthouse suites as perfect places to see the mushroom cloud. All the hype paid off. Las Vegas has pulled in nearly 10 billion gamblers.

ew light has been shed on the mysterious disappearance of legendary aviator Amelia Earhart while attempting a round the world flight in 1937. A secret CIA report suggests the famous flyer, the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic, may have crashed into the sea after going off

Freedom of information laws, suggests a different explanation. The report, discussing disputes between the US and the UK over sovereignty of 25 remote Pacific islands including Christmas Island, which had been used for nuclear bomb tests. It states Earhart’s aircraft went down in the

Map showing How land Island, and the Phoenix islands where Earhart and Noonan (pictured) disappeared

course while surveying Pacific islands for the civil airline industry. Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan were on the last leg of their flight, across the Pacific from New Guinea to the USA, and were scheduled to land at remote Howland Isle to refuel when they lost contact with their support vessel. Apart from a few garbled radio messages they were never heard of again. A US Navy investigation concluded the famous aviator crashed into the sea after running out of fuel near the island. But no wreckage was ever recovered, sparking a plethora of conspiracy theories including speculation they survived the crash, and were captured by the Japanese navy and taken to Saipan where they were executed. A grainy photograph discovered in US Naval intelligence files purported to show Earhart and Noonan, under guard on an island with their aircraft on a barge nearby. But the new evidence, contained in a huge tranche of declassified CIA files released under

Phoenix group of islands, which is about 800 miles from Christmas island. The report, a ‘Memorandum to the President’ states that the US revived interest in Enderbury and Canton islands, both part of the Phoenix group, after civil air interest in the area developed, adding:

“It was in this area that Amelia Earhart disappeared.” The report could explain why Earhart’s plane was fitted with special cameras before it took off from California on the first leg of her historic attempt to circumnavigate the world. The burgeoning civil aviation industry at the time would have been eager for information regarding routes and possible landing grounds in the vast and largely uncharted Pacific ocean. And they would have been willing to pay, thus helping Earhart, who relied on sponsors to pay for the mission. It would also explain why Earhart and Noonan decided to fly over the Pheonix islands before continuing north to Howland Island.

he huge mushroom clouds from atom bomb tests of the 1950s and 1960s were an unforgettable feature of popular culture which generally saw them as a force for good against the evil of the Soviet empire. The tests were cloaked in rhetoric typical of the Cold War, but it couldn’t mask the very real fears of many who believed the bomb tests were poisoning the planet. Government experts, both in Britain and America, argued there was little long-term health consequences. But they couldn’t argue against an alarming rise in childhood cancers in the 1950s. Atmospheric nuclear testing was finally banned in 1963, after scientists at the US Center for Disease Control calculated that fallout caused 15,000 U.S. cancer deaths, a figure some believed was a gross underestimate. The following year, an authoritative European panel reported 600,000 cancer deaths worldwide from fallout. But as the experts argued, Washington University officials stumbled upon 85,000 teeth collected from American schoolchildren in the 1950s to measure levels of strontium-90, one of the most toxic elements of radioactive fallout. The school donated the teeth, part of a programme called ’I Gave My Tooth to Science’ to the Radiation and Public Health Project (RPHP), a research group conducting its own study of Sr90 in baby teeth, near U.S. nuclear reactors. Each tooth was enclosed in a small envelope attached to a card identifying the tooth donor. RPHP scientists recognized that these teeth could help answer the long-awaited question of fallout’s harm to the health of Americans. The tooth donors, now in their 40s and 50s, could be tracked at current addresses or through death

records. And Sr-90 could still be measured in each tooth, as the chemical decays very slowly. The first results of the study were released in an article in the International Journal of Health Services. Baby teeth of St. Louis baby boomers who died of cancer by age 50 had more than double — 122 percent more — the Sr-90 concentration than did Boomers who are alive and healthy. This research, known as a case-control study, is the first evidence that bomb tests harmed Americans using actual levels of fallout in human bodies. It is not yet possible to estimate the number of cancer victims from fallout, but it appears that the Centre for Disease Control estimate of 15,000 deaths is too low. Untold millions of people alive today were exposed to above-ground bomb tests, and with 40% expected to be diagnosed with cancer at some point, experts are desperate to understand causes. Nuclear power reactors produce the same mixture of chemicals as atom bomb tests. Most of this toxic mixture is stored as high level nuclear waste, but some is emitted into the air and water, and enters human bodies. The RPHP study of baby teeth showed that Sr-90 levels in children near reactors were 30-50 per cent greater than children in distant areas, and that levels were rising sharply over time, as aging reactors corrode. Studying health risks of radioactive emissions from both weapons and reactors has been a highly politicized issue, as the military and industries producing these chemicals are not eager to present findings of harm. But even the pro-nuclear lobby are waking up to the fact that the only way to truly reduce cancer rates is to understand causes and take preventive actions. Baby teeth, even those from half a century ago, may hold the clues to one such cause.

Mathematical genius John Von N atomic bomb, shocked a scientific per-novae, those mysterious star and, as quickly, become celestial c planetary systems had reached t mankind now stood and, having f had at least succeeded in ac

Neumann, one of the chief architects of the c audience in New York when he said that surs which are suddenly born in great brilliance cinders, could be evidence that aliens in other the point in their scientific knowledge where failed to solve the problem of living together, chieving togetherness by cosmic suicide.

HE CO-PILOT of the Valiant bomber that dropped the second bomb in the Grapple series of nuclear bomb tests has spoken for the first time about a hairraising event that could have had catastrophic consequences for the crew...and the entire HBomb programme. In an interview for a BBC documentary marking the 60th anniversary of Britain’s H-Bomb tests, Flying Officer Alan Pringle told how the huge aircraft stalled just after dropping the bomb code -named Orange Herald over Malden Island in the Pacific on May 31st 1957. So far the only official account of the event was a terse statement by Group Captain Kenneth Hubbard, who dropped Britain’s first H-bomb in a book marking the event. Hubbard described the incident as an ‘unpleasant experience,’ before praising the pilot, Captain Dave Roberts, for his airmanship, But Flying Officer Pringle makes it clear in his interview just how close to disaster the crew really were. He said: “We set off from Christmas Island to Malden Island, which is about 400 miles away, to make the drop. “The world’s press and several VIPs were waiting to witness the event on board HMS Warrior, the flagship for the test programme. “We were flying 40-50,000 feet and we were given the clearance to go ahead. When we released the bomb we had to do a quick getaway away from the danger zone so that the bomb didn’t explode immediately underneath us. My job as a co-pilot was to monitor an accelerome-

Valiant co-pilot Alan Pringle recalls the terrifying day his aircraft stalled after dropping The Bomb over Malden Island.

ter which told the captain how much g force he could pull without the aircraft stalling. In the event as we rolled into this tight turn a wire broke off at the back of the instrument and so I wasn’t able to tell the captain he was getting near the limit of high tight a turn he could do. At that instant the aircraft started to bounce around as though we were coming to the stall and the engines also started to have a little bit of a burble which meant that things were not quite right. The bomb aimer was thrown back into the nose of the aircraft by the extra G force placed upon him. We didn’t have time to think how we could get out of it, it was just pure flying skill. To correct the stall we just turned as hard as we could go and headed away from the explosion. It was a close run thing, but the Valiant escaped from the blast zone. “ The press and VIPs watching were completely unaware of the drama that had unfolded over their heads. They were told the ‘drop’ had been a complete success and that Britain, once again, had proved it could produce a hydrogen bomb. Both statements, we now know, were untrue. The first H-bomb, dropped by Hubbard a fortnight earlier, had been something of a damp squib, exploding with a force of just 250 kts. To endure a megaton-range ‘big bang’, as demanded by politicians, Orange Herald, was a boosted atomic bomb that used a huge amount of fissionable uranium. It gave a respectable 800 kt yield.

AT THE height of the Cold War leafy Dorking in Surrey was the unlikely setting for a major nuclear bomb alert after a huge test bomb came loose as it was being flown over the town. The bomb was being transported to a secret facility in Orford Ness a desolate stretch of shingle and stone on the east Suffolk coast that became Britain’s main research centre for atomic weapons in the 1950s. According to Reg Milne, who worked for the Ministry of Defence at the Royal Aircraft Establishment, on a test flight to Orford Ness a bomb came loose over Dorking and fell off its hook. Luckily the bomb doors were strong enough to hold it. And the pilot took the aircraft over the Thames estuary, opened the bomb doors. Said Mr Milne: “The bomb fell out and the splash nearly drowned a couple of sailors who hap-

pened to be nearby. They never found it. It’s still under the Thames somewhere.” The story emerged when Mr Milne appeared in BBC documentary Britain's Nuclear Bomb: The Inside Story. It was disclosed however that the device was a five-tonne replica and did not contain any nuclear material. The casing was almost certainly a Yellow Sun bomb casing which had a blunt nose designed to slow its fall. It was Britain’s first hydrogen bomb to go into service and Mr Milne revealed that he and his colleagues had major problems with the casing. The bomb was lighter than conventional bombs and tended to go back up into the bomb bay when the doors opened. Scientists came up with an ingenious solution. They put a series of flaps underneath called dragons teeth which changed the airflow and diverted the bomb outwards which sucked the bomb nose down.

he Russians have admitted that a major fire on a nuclear missile carrying submarine in December 2011 could have been one of the worst nuclear weapons disasters in history. Prime Minister Dmitri Rogozin said In an interview with the Russian newspaper Kommersant that fire on the Ekaterinburg threatened its load of liquid-fuelled nuclear missiles. If the missiles had caught fire, then the resulting explosions would have spewed radioactivity over a wide area, threatening Murmansk, a nearby town of 300,000 people. At the time of the incident, Russian officials insisted that the R29RM missiles had been offloaded prior to the ship going into drydock. But now Rogozin has admitted the missiles were onboard at the time of the fire, The nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine K-84, also known as Ekaterinburg, had made a quick stop in drydock before heading out on a missile patrol. The ship was surrounded by wooden scaffolding for a welding job on the bow when a fire broke out. The fire quickly spread to the submarine’s rubber anechoic coating, which is designed to lower the sub’s acoustic signature underwater. The fire burned for nearly a day as firefighters struggled to contain the blaze. Rogozin states that the Ekaterinburg “did

not unload the ammunition before the repairs. There were torpedoes on it, and regular ballistic missiles.” The K-84 Ekaterinburg is a Project 667BDRM ballistic missile submarine. Built in 1982 it carries a crew of 135. As part of Russia’s nuclear deterrent at sea, K-84 regularly takes a full complement of 16 R29RM liquid-fuelled missiles on undersea patrols, each of which is armed with four nuclear warheads.

The location of the fire, in the port bow near the torpedo tubes, caused panic on the ship with desperate calls to the Kremlin for resources to help put it out. According to reports the fire burned for 20 hours and the submarine finally had to submerge to put out the fire The inferno required the use of fire-fighting helicopters, tugboats, and eleven firefighting crews. TV footage taken at the time shows the sub well ablaze. The nuclear fuel aboard the missiles would have been scattered over a wide area, threatening Murmansk and beyond.

CND

the worldwide protest movement against nuclear bombs began in February 1958 when a small group of “peaceniks” hired Central Hall in London to hold a protest meeting about the H-Bomb. To most people it seemed wildly optimistic that they would get more than a handful of people at the meeting, especially as small ads in the low circulation New Statesman and Peace News were the only publicity. In the event the hall was overwhelmed by more than 5,000 people, from all walks of life. There were so many that the speakers had to shuffle to four overflow meetings scattered throughout the building. They all wanted to protest against the H-Bomb, but what could they do? Suddenly the word went out: “March to Aldermaston at Easter.” Thus a tradition that became a regular Easter feature in Fifties Britain was born. At first many people said it was crazy to March thousands of people a distance of 45 miles, the distance from Trafalgar square to the Aldermaston nuclear bomb making factory in Berkshire. The first march started in Trafalgar Square at 11 am on Good Friday morning. The target for the day was Turnham Green where those who were unable to continue could easily get a tube back to London. The day was sunny and the marchers were full of enthusiasm. Crowds of people went to watch as the march wended its way through the streets. There was a carnival atmosphere with music and bands playing along the route and small children running alongside. Things took a turn for the worse the fol-

lowing day, however, when the weather abruptly changed, with bitter cold winds and incessant rain. The dreariness of the Great West Road, with cars splashing the column of marchers (some said deliberately!), dampened many spirits. And it didn’t help when the rain abruptly turned to snow, the first Easter snow for a century. CND ‘Bigshots’ like Canon Collins, Michael Foot and Jacquetta Hawks, were not involved in that first march. The only ‘name’ that anyone could see was the Labour MP Frank Allaun who somehow managed to keep up with the mainly youthful marchers who had an average age of about 25. The weather began to take its toll and the marchers dropped to less than 300, and there were serious questions about whether the march would peter out. But they took heart as they trudged into Slough to a warm welcome from somewhat bemused bystanders. A Methodist minister opened his church and provided tea and biscuits, while a woman handed out a box of toffees to everyone. Spirits revived, the march proceeded into Reading where the numbers began to swell again. They reached over 5,000 on the approach to Aldermaston. The marchers who had never seen the place where the bombs were made peered at it with a sense of awe. Mysterious pipes seemed to run everywhere and some said frogs ‘as big as Volkswagons’ lurked in marshy pools on nearby farmland. The march finally halted for the speeches. Looking back from a hill the column stretched as far as the road was visible. Friends shouted to each other, cameras clicked, newsreels whirled, the venture was deemed a success. Truly something had started.

he daughter of one of the pioneering scientists who made the first atomic bomb has told how suspicion fell on her father after the Americans uncovered a series of telegrams which revealed that Klaus Fuchs, part of the British contingent at Los Alamos, had been a Soviet spy. Joanna Hookway, daughter of Sir Rudi Peierls, cosignatory on the first scientific paper outlining the feasibility of an atomic bomb, told how her father and mother, Eugenia, had both been devastated when Fuchs, a close family friend, was unmasked in 1950. Fuch’s was Peierls’s protégé, and it was upon his advice that Fuchs was sent to Los Alamos to work on the Manhattan Project. Mrs Hookway, Peirerls and wife Eugenia’s only child, said the arrest of Fuchs, who had provided the Soviet union with crucial information to help them develop the bomb, hit the family hard. She said: “I think they were hurt in the same way as if anybody in your family betrayed you, you would be hurt. My mother wrote in a letter and she said to him, do you realise what will be the effect on scientists here and in America? Do you realise they will be suspected not only by officials but by their own friends because if you could, why not they? Mrs Hookway read what her mother wrote in the letter: “Oh Klaus my tears are washing away the ink. I was so very fond of you. This letter is just a sea of ink.”

She added: “His protege’s spying had dreadful ramifications. For my father there was a whole stigma associated with the fact he had access to quite a lot of his work. But after he died somebody published an article that said my parents were spies. I had probably a millisecond of time where I thought to myself that maybe he was guilty. And that millisecond of doubt I will never forgive the authors of those articles for because he was such a truly great man. He was such an honest man that it was

wrong that I doubted him and I shouldn’t have done that.” Before he died Peierls wrote: “Because of my association with Fuchs, I must have been under great suspicion at the time of his arrest. But at no time was I made to feel it by the police. “This cannot be said of the press. One of the Sunday papers ran a front page headline reading: ‘Perturbed Men’ with photographs of a number of refugee scientists, including mine, over a story claiming that we were all afraid of antirefugee prejudice triggered by the Fuchs affair. I wrote a firm reply headed, ‘I Am Not Perturbed’ which they were decent enough to publish.”

ot many of us survived the ‘Railway of Death’, and those that did were in a pitiable state. We were like walking skeletons, but there was worse, much worse to come. Any hopes that our torment was over when we finished the railway were dashed when we were inspected by a Japanese medical officer at the Chunkia POW camp where we bedraggled survivors were taken. After a brief examination I was passed fit for more work, and promptly dumped aboard a railway truck for the long trip back to Singapore. But that wasn’t the end of the road for me or the rest of us who survived, for we were told we were on our way to Japan to work in the copper mines. We were put in a cage by the wharfside while a flotilla of old oil tankers, that had seen much better days, were waiting to take us to Japan. There were 18 of these ships, all called something ‘Maru’ waiting for us. As more POWs arrived we began to be shoved onto our allotted ships...800 to 1000 on each! As we boarded, the Chinese dock workers started muttering together; they had heard that American submarines were waiting outside the harbour to sink the ships. We didn’t believe them as we didn’t think the Yanks would sink the ships if they knew POWs were aboard. We had been at sea about a week when we were reminded of what the dockers had said as the American air force attacked. Eighteen ships were in our convoy and they all dispersed as the American planes buzzed us. We were crammed in the holds, about 800 of us in the most disgusting conditions. They were so bad none of us expected to reach Japan. Our meals, for everyone consisted of six buckets of rice and four water barrels. Men were dying like flies, mainly of thirst. It was so bad you were likely to have a bite taken out of some part of your body. Luckily I had a couple of good pals and we took turns to keep awake to protect each other from being bitten. I noticed that a lot of the men, who had been captured before us, had receding gums and their teeth looked like vampire fangs. They

were so thirsty that were would take a bite out of anyone and suck the blood. Luckily my pals Smiler Newton and Mick Patterson stuck with me and we looked after one another. As the attack continued, our ship started zig-zagging and soon the gunfire above ceased. We moved into calmer waters and the heat was terrible. The sanitation was too awful to be true and the stench was worse than any sewer. Every now and then the Japanese crewmen threw huge buckets of sea water over us to try to keep the smell down. These ships were known as ‘hell ships’ and we certainly knew why. After a period of calm , the ship suddenly became alive again, the speed increased and we zig-zagged so violently we were thrown about with stunning force against each other and into the sides. The word went round that we were being attacked by submarines; the noise from the booming guns and the sirens was deafening. Suddenly there was a tremendous explosion at the top of the hold which blew the hatch off. Men started screaming and fighting each other to get out. I said, ‘this is it, lads’ as the men lunged toward a single metal ladder that led up to the deck. Mick, Smiler and me decided to hang back a bit while everyone else rushed up the ladder, climbing over dead bodies as they did so. As soon as the ladder was clear we scrambled up as fast as we could. When we got on deck the

ship was listing badly and I knew it wouldn’t be long before it sank. Lots of chaps were in the water swimming but there was no sign of land. Suddenly Smiler tapped me on the shoulder and pointed; it was a raft so we swam toward it. But it was already occupied by two of our guards. They weren't pleased to see us and tried to shove us away. A desperate fight ensued as we tried to climb aboard. The raft wasn’t very buoyant and we were all slipping into the water. Suddenly the man I was fighting started to jerk about in the water. It was only when the blood bubbled up around him that I realised the sharks had got him. Needless to say I scrambled aboard pretty sharply. Mick and Smiler soon joined me; the two crewmen were eaten by the sharks. It was beginning to get dark and all we could hear was the screams of those in the water as the sharks feasted. We paddled to get away from the area and we were soon alone. I lost track of time and we were all suffering badly from thirst and the cold. We knew we couldn’t survive much longer, but then we came across a Japanese fishing boat who took us aboard. The crew were kind to us, but were a little afraid to come near us in case we carried disease. They passed us a bucket of rice which made us sick because we hadn’t eaten for so long.

We finally arrived in Japan, but they wouldn’t allow the boat to put ashore The fishing boat had to show a yellow flag and wait for us to be medically examined. The doctors came aboard and tested us for dysentery and cholera as we had come from the jungle and the death railway. The doctors treated us like farm animals as they carried out their tests. After waiting for more than two days, the fishing boat was allowed ashore. We were herded into ‘Godowns’ which were warehouses. There were hundreds of survivors like us, and what a sorry state we were all in. We had no clothes and looked like a lot of savages with long hair and beards. When I see people with beards now I often wonder if they have fleas in them, like we had. I estimated our average weight was about six stones. The guards eventually sorted us out into parties to be dispatched to different areas and jobs. I was scheduled to go to the Iroke Mine, between Osaka and Kobi. We were marched through the town and the inhabitants who came out to see us must have thought what wicked, dirty people we were. Some of the children threw stones at us, but one old lady who took pity on us and tried to give something to one of the lads; she was smashed in the face by a guard’s rifle butt. After a forced march which took most of the day we arrived at a railway station and loaded on to trucks. There were 140 in our truck, and it wasn’t very pleasant. It took two days to arrive at the copper mine where I was given a job as a driller, an important job. It was hot, dusty, back-breaking work and few survived more than a couple of weeks. I was one of the

lucky ones because of my job and wasn’t treated like most of the rest who were bludgeoned if they fell down until they got up again. There were several mine disasters during my time there. One tunnel collapsed and we were trapped for 24 hours. The mine had apparently been closed down twice before through flooding as it was under a river. After they dragged us out they gave us a cup of tea, no milk or sugar, though. I had the satisfaction of knowing that all our efforts didn’t help the Japanese war effort much. To keep my brain active I made some mental calculations about the work we were doing and calculated that only a few hundredweight of copper was extracted from thousands of tons of rock. Thus I stopped myself from going mad. But I couldn’t do anything about the physical hell we had to endure. 140 of us marched into that camp and we were crammed into four huts. Our food was two rice balls a day, one in the morning and one when we came out of the mine after slaving away for 12 hours without a break. Men began to die; mates who sat next to you were suddenly not there anymore. Smiler was one of the first to go. His body was taken away and dumped somewhere. We weren’t allowed to pay our last respects. A few of us tried to make things better and we asked the guards for some vegetables because a lot of the lads suffered from scurvy. The guards sent three men out of the camp and ordered them to bring in grass. They boiled it until it was yellow and made us eat it. If you’ve never tried to chew grass and you fancy it...the best of luck to you! It was impossible to digest and everyone was sick. The guards just looked on and laughed.

Time passed and men died; As more men died we moved into other huts, finishing up eventually in one hut. On one occasion the camp commandant arranged for us to take a pill, like a pigeon’s egg, which they said would counteract the copper poisoning from which we were all suffering. But all the pill did was make us choke and some of the chaps died. So many men died, the mine had to be abandoned and I, along with a couple of other lads, were taken away in the night and put on a train. The guards said we were the only ones fit enough to travel and that we were ‘special’ because of our skill in drilling. We travelled all day and night until we reached a region surrounded by green hills and mountains. There was a city about 20 miles away and it wasn’t until later that I was told its name: Nagasaki. The green hills reminded me a bit of England and I am not ashamed to admit it I sobbed like a baby. We were marched to an area where they were just starting to mine. Most of the workforce were Koreans and some of them were crueler than the Japanese had ever been. They took an instant dislike to us and would have robbed us of our meagre food ration if we hadn’t fought back. The fact I used to be an army boxer helped here! The work began again, but this time it was even harder as many of the Koreans took to the hills and we had to take up the slack. I was counting the days for the time when my body couldn’t take any more, until one day on leaving the mine I noticed it had gone dark as though a storm was approaching. Then all of a sudden there was a huge flash and a great ball of fire appeared over the city. This was followed by an eerie silence. All the Japanese and Korean guards huddled together in a corner looking frightened. After a while they started marching down the road out of the camp; a truck came to fetch the com-

mandant and suddenly we prisoners were alone. We had no idea what was happening, but we were too exhausted and diseased to care. There weren’t many of us left and we decided to take over a few deserted tunnels to get out of the rain that had begun to fall. We covered ourselves in old matting and straw and went to sleep. I think we must have slept for days, drifting in and out of consciousness. There were just eleven of us, sleeping in a huddle to keep warm, when the Americans arrived. It was about 5am in the morning and I was on the outside of the huddle, and the first to be seen by the GI’s. I think my appearance scared them half to death, but not half as much as they scared me. This big American sergeant came over with his gun drawn; he was so big I thought he was a monster, an apparition. Coming out of the gloom. We looked at each other for a while, then the big American smiled, put his gun away and said: “Come on you men, do you want to stay here all your lives.” We had all woken up by then and we were led gently away to a truck. A doctor took one look at us and said we wouldn’t have lasted another 24 hours. One of them said to me: “Come on fatty, we are going to give you an injection. “ After that I passed out. When I came to I was on a stretcher over the seats of a train and I was covered over completely. I could hear singing, beautiful voices singing Ave Maria. I had never heard this hymn before and it scared me to death. It was the nurses singing, but I really thought they were angels and I was in heaven. Then the orderlies came and removed the sheet and I realized I was alive. I said to them, ‘you covered me up because you thought I was dead.’ But they explained they covered me to keep the atom dust off. Atom dust! What’s that?’ I said. It’s what ended the war, replied one of them. And you are going home, son.

Ken McGinley

Derek Chappell Barbara Penney Dr Ian Gibson Albert Isaksen

Robert Wells

Gerry Rice

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North Korea, Iran, Saudi Arabia...more and more countries seem determined to arm themselves with nuclear weapons. The politics of the atomic bomb used to be the sole fiefdom of just a handful of comparatively stable nations, including the Soviet Union, who could be relied upon not to bring about Armageddon. But as more join the nuclear club, and nations like Russia disintegrate into murder and gangsterism, the chances diminish. Just one atomic bomb fired in anger by any country would be enough to spark World War 3. After that there would be no hope for anybody. For all our sakes every nation must be compelled to give up their nuclear weapons. For if they don’t, We will soon find that, as the great mathematician John Von Neumann said, having failed to solve the problem of living together, we will at least succeed in achieving togetherness by cosmic suicide.