FissionLine 71

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FISSIONLINE

Issue 71

International Bulletin of Nuclear Matters

WORLD PEACE

April 2024

Contents

STATEMENT FROM PRESIDENT RONALD REAGAN IN RATIFYING A CONGRESSIONAL BILL TO AWARD NOFAULT COMPENSATION TO US NUCLEAR VETERANS

4-7: Cloud flyer's blood cancer death terrified the MoD 8: Death on Christmas Island 9: Words that haunt me, by John Simes 10-11: Did US racism turn Fuchs into a 'Superspy.'

13: Nuclear bomb blessings to end.

14: Stalin's psychopathic A-bomb maker 15: Oppy the Hippy!

16: Day I met a legend, by Dr Chris Hill 18,19: Different views, Historic statements from two political giants FissionLine is an independent newspaper without any political ties or affiliations Editor: Alan Rimmer fissionline@gmail.com Tel: 07801 184011

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Over the past few years, questions have arisen regarding the long-term health effects resulting from the veterans who were exposed to low levels of ionizing radiation from the atomic weapons atmospheric testing program or from the occupation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. While radiation indisputably has serious adverse health effects at high dose levels, there is scientific uncertainty about its adverse health effects at the very low levels underlying these claims. Even though the available evidence does not suggest the existence of adverse long-term health effects from low-level ionizing radiation exposure, because there is some uncertainty on this point, the Bill reaffirms the administration's strong commitment to the well-being of the men and women who have served this nation with honour and distinction. By giving the Veterans Administration the opportunity to conduct a careful, systematic review of the evidence underlying these claims, the bill accomplishes two important purposes: —When veterans suffer from illnesses due to their exposure to low-level radiation, it lays the groundwork for awarding the compensation to which they are rightfully entitled.

But, as importantly, it will have the Veterans Administration provide assurance to those concerned about their health and the health of their children where past exposures have not triggered present dangers.

Veterans deserve to know the truth about the consequences of their exposure to low-level radiation, and they should not live in fear if that fear is unjustified. This bill will facilitate the search for that truth, and I am therefore pleased to sign it.

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STATEMENT FROM PRIME MINISTER TONY BLAIR WHO PROMISED TO COMPENSATE BRITAIN'S NUCLEAR VETERANS ONCE THE LABOUR PARTY WERE IN POWER

device wrapped in a fissile material like uranium. Fallout from such a device exploded in a crowded city would be enough to cause widespread panic over a huge area with people stampeding to flee the deadly contamination and very likely cause as much civil confusion and mayhem as an attack from a proper nuclear bomb.

FISSIONLINE

"Some ex-servicemen who were present at the atmospheric nuclear tests are ill….however I am bound to repeat that there is no evidence of excessive illness or mortality amongst all of the veterans as a group that could be linked to exposure to radiation as a result of the tests….On the basis of full access to all relevant documentation…It is clear that very few of those present at the tests would have received a measurable radiation dose. As you are aware, the study into the health of the test veterans carried out by the NRPB and the Imperial Cancer Research Fund showed that the veterans as a group their participation in the nuclear weapons programme has not had a detectable effect on their expectations of life, or their risk of developing cancer or other fatal diseases. This study was carried out independently of the Ministry of Defence in response to the veterans’ concerns and published in the British Medical Journal….the 1988 and 1993 NRPB reports addressed the most significant period of risk for the illness of most concern — leukaemia. The MoD cannot readily justify spending further substantial sums of public money on further studies, in the absence of any substantial scientific criticism of the NRPB’s findings."

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FISSIONLINE

Our front cover, "Peace Today" is a cartoon by Rube Goldberg which won a Pulitzer prize in 1948. It's message of a world on the brink of nuclear destruction is even more relevant today than what it it was 75 years ago. Then the USA was the only power to have the atomic bomb but everyone knew it was only a matter of time before the rest of the world caught up. Today nine countries possess nuclear weapons and in total, the global nuclear stockpile is close to 13,000 weapons. Just one of those weapons exploded in anger could be enough to spark armageddon.

Despite this, the world seems strangely indifferent, as though people don't really believe it could happen, putting their faith in the hope that even tyrants like Putin are not mad enough to bring destruction down on their own heads.

We can only hope they are right! But perhaps the real threat is one long feared by most of the world's intelligence agancies: that of a terrorist organisation getting its hands on a dirty bomb --- a conventional explosive

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The estimable Mr Bates Exciteable nuke vet campaigners are hoping for a "Mr Bates" moment of public fury and outcry when a planned TV programme about Britain's nuclear veterans is aired later this year. We sincerely wish them well in their endeavours. Mr Alan Bates, who led the successful postmasters campaign, deserves all the plaudits that have come his way. He showed remarkable fortitude to resist the pressure from the Post Office and a deft touch in turning down the various gongs and medals offered to him. He knows better than anyone that refusal of honours sends a powerful message to the government that the postmasters have no intention of being bought off or subsumed into the Establishment where they can more easily be controlled into acceptance of a shoddy deal cobbled together by the Government and the Post Office.

UK Gov was 'scared stiff' of nuclear cloud flyer who died of blood cancer

By Alan Rimmer

Cloud Flyer Tony Davis

WHEN RAF Squadron Leader Tony Davis died of leukaemia after taking part in H-Bomb tests his last wish was for relief from death taxes so his sister could carry on living in the flat they shared.

But he was turned down because the MoD were "scared stiff" of opening the floodgates to claims for compensation, according to his lawyer.

And the MoD refused to budge even after Davis's doctor, a world-famous blood specialist, stated he was almost certain the disease was caused by

the bomb tests after examining Davis’s flying log which showed that in 1957-58 he had taken a very active role in six UK nuclear bomb tests on Christmas Island in the Pacific.

Davis, a former Spitfire ace who fought in the Battle of Britain, spent more than a year on the island photographing the deadly mushroom clouds from the cockpit of a Canberra aircraft.

Later he flew highly radioactive materials from the clouds back to Britain.

Davis was of course well aware of the danger to his

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health. And when his illness was diagnosed he was acutely aware that he could become a potential political hot potato.

But he had no intention of being used, as a “hideous political pawn” by the burgeoning antinuclear movement of the day, He instructed his solicitor, a former RAF officer with high-powered connections, not to make his illness public.

All he asked for was relief from death duties for his sister Susan, his only surviving relative, so she could go on living in their shared London flat.

The solicitor, Mr J. Elverston-Trickett, believed it was an open and shut case for compensation, but was shocked to receive a terse rebuff from the then Permanent UnderSecretary of State (Air) Mr B.E. Robson .

Sellafield under fire The company which runs the Sellafield nuclear site is being prosecuted for alleged information technology security offences.

The Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) says Sellafield Ltd is alleged to have committed the offences between 2019 and early 2023.

The facility, on the Cumbrian coast, is widely regarded as Western Europe's most hazardous nuclear site.

The ONR says public safety was not put at risk.

The regulator says the decision to prosecute Sellafield follows an investigation it carried out.

It says no further details can be given because legal proceedings are now under way.

The Guardian last year reported that Sellafield had been hacked by cyber groups "closely linked to Russia and China".

In an interview with the

BBC later that month, Sellafield's boss, Euan Hutton, insisted there had been no attacks on the site.

In response to ONR's announcement, Sellafield has issued a statement confirming it had been notified it was to be prosecuted.

Nuclear Matters Bombmakers win woke prize Britain's nuclear bombmakers, the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) has achieved a prestigious silver award and been ranked within the top 200 companies for the Stonewall Workplace Equality Index (WEI) 2022.

The Stonewall WEI is a benchmarking tool that assesses a company’s

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achievements and progress on LGBTQ+ equality. A spokesperson said: "We're over the moon."

Icon Ken breaks leg Our prayers are with Ken McGinley, the founding father of the nuclear community.

Already battling stage four cancer he took a tumble on the stairs at his Johnstone home and broke his leg.

He'll be in hospital for at least two weeks while his doctors decide whether to operate. His daughter Louise is at his bedside and will update us on his condition.

Get well soon, Ken. We need you!

When I met a legend, by Dr Chris Hill All of the researchers on the project knew that no oral history collection on the subject of nuclear test veterans would be complete without an interview with Ken McGinley, the founding father of the nuclear test veteran community.

When we heard that Ken was ill, we made it a priority to get ourselves up the M6 and interview him as a matter of urgency. Meeting Ken was an absolute pleasure.

I was immediately struck by both his charm and integrity. From his childhood through to his decades of campaigning after the nuclear tests, Ken’s whole life seemed to have been shaped by his keen sense of justice.

His willingness to stand up for what is right has had a positive impact on so many lives, and not only in the test veteran community. He was influential in overturning Section 10 of the Crown Proceedings Act, which had prevented veterans from applying for

compensation for injuries and illnesses sustained in the course of service. He paved the way for the USA’s Radiation Exposure Compensation Act. He was successful in pushing the UK government into conducting an environmental clean-up of Christmas Island in the

2000s. At the end of my visit, Ken and I indulged in a thought-experiment about how many millions he’d cost the UK government in righting the wrongs of the Cold War era. The wry smile on his face suggested he was very happy with his life’s work, as he should be!

Dr Chris Hill, Head of the Government funded Oral History programme, with Ken McGinley

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Robson replied: “Our records show that only one category of air crew (the sampling squadron) received doses of radiation consequent upon detonation of the nuclear devices off Christmas Island.

Squadron Leader Davis was not a member of this squadron.”

And Robson added: “There are no other records of RAF personnel having suffered ill-effects from radiation during their service on Christmas Island.”

This was lie.

Just weeks later a Defence Minister told Parliament that at least three servicemen had contracted leukaemia after returning from Christmas Island.

Elverston-Trickett was quick to point this out to the MoD, and he had more evidence to support Davis’s claim in a

powerful statement from Davis’s consultant, Prof Frank G. Hayhoe, a distinguished haematologist, who wrote:“It is incontrovertibly established that exposure to ionising radiations such

denied that this exposure whatever the dose and type, may have caused his leukaemia.”

This was damning evidence from a worldrenowned expert and it clearly rattled the MoD mandarins. It was nearly two months before the Ministry replied, and when they did it was to cloud the issue.

In a letter dated 24th February, 1965, Jobson wrote that under Section 71 1952 of the Finance Act to qualify for exemption from death duties, servicemen had to have been killed in a war zone , adding:“In these Consultant's powerful evidence circumstances we have concluded reluctantly, and in as may result from an consultation with the atomic explosion can Treasury, that Squadron induce the development of Leader Davis’s estate leukaemia after a latent does not qualify for period of several years…it exemption under Section could not reasonably be 71.”

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In further exchanges, the in those exposed to less decided that the only option MoD hardened its position than 50 rads, a was to go public. He wrote by claiming that its own comparatively low dose. to Sue Davis, Davis’s doctors took issue with Dr Further increasingly testy sister, suggesting they Hayhoe’s contention that contact a “friendly MP to exchanges between the leukaemia was “usually raise the matter in solicitor and the MoD attributable” to ionising Parliament.” continued for nearly two radiation.

But by this time The official added: Sue Davis had “Only some two per had enough. She cent of the Hiroshima insisted on victims subsequently adhering to her contracted leukaemia." brother’s last wishes (not to This was yet another be used as a blatant falsehood with 'hideous some researchers political pawn’) claiming that the rates and refused of leukaemia among publicity. those living closest to the detonation So like so many increased by a similar cases, devastating 660%, the tragic story about 12 to 13 years of Tony Davis after the bomb (which slipped into is when radiation levels history, his Sadako Sasaki one of hundreds who died of peaked.) suffering and leukaemia 10 years after the Hiroshima bomb untimely death Subsequent studies by forgotten. various organisations have all shown that the Until, that is, his years with the Ministry of risk of leukaemia was death certificate was unearthed by researchers for the BBC in 1983. A team of journalists contacted Sue Davis, but she still refused to Tony Davis death certificate cooperate fully in a groundbreaking Nationwide documentary which first Defence refusing to budge. exposed the ‘Truth of substantially elevated among those survivors even Finally Elverston-Trickett Christmas Island.’

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how throughout the 1930s they spent their summers with friends at a small ranch leased by the Oppenheimer family high in the Pecos wilderness of northern New Mexico.

Frank gives a colourful account of life in the wilderness:“When we first went there we slept on the floor, a board floor. But that didn’t bother Robert much. He was a very hardy fellow although he didn’t look that way, he looked terribly frail.

"But he was pretty tough.

He eventually explored large parts of those mountains; Oppie knew more about them than almost anybody else. He would just get on his horse and put a chocolate bar in his pocket and would be gone for a day or two at least.

"Sleeping out he would see nobody else in the whole trip. Everything my brother did was going to be special. If he went

Oppy the Hippy: Just like Dylan!

The same hair, the same laconic eyes and intense expression --- fans of Oppenheimer the blockbuster Hollywood movie about the Manhattan Project have commented on the uncanny resemblance between the scientist as a young man and the folk legend Bob Dylan.

But for most people that's where the similarity ends, for surely the scientific genius who made the atomic bomb couldn't possibly be compared with the poetic Dylan who made his name singing protest songs about the evils of The Bomb? But you'd be wrong: Oppenheimer as a young man was one of the first hippies, according to his younger brother Frank. In a rare interview he describes

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off into the woods to take a leak he would come back with a flower and not to disguise the fact that he took a leak, but to just make it an occasion I guess.

"It was a wonderful time for all of us, all the different guests and most of them physicists who brought some ideas with them.

"Also the meals were so strange, peanut butter and Vienna sausages with whisky was a favourite. And we’d get so drunk with being high up in the mountains we’d all act silly, I guess.

When it came to the rainy season we noticed that it didn’t rain quite as much at night, so we started to ride at night."

Oppenheimner harked back to his hippy days when he first cast eyes on the awesome blast from the first atomic bomb in New Mexico in July 1945 by famously quoting from the ancient Hindu text the Bhagavad Gita: 'I am become death, the destroyer of worlds...'

How the West was wrong-footed by the psychopathic monster responsible for the Soviet Union's first A-Bomb, Joe-1 SHORTLY after the atomic bombings of Japan in 1945, Stalin issued an ultimatum to Lavrentiy Beria, the feared head of the NKVD, the Soviet secret police ordering, the “bomb” to be built and tested within five years. NKVD Special Department “S” was established by Beria to organize intelligence documents gathered about the U.S. bomb and to accelerate the research efforts.

The bomb was ready for testing within four years.

The Russian scientists would have preferred testing their own design but opted for a copy of the US Trinity device because Beria had informed them that they would be executed if the test failed. The result was an almost exact copy

of the Fat Man device dropped on Nagasaki and

Lavrentiy Beria

demonstrated that Russia could manufacture and test nuclear weapons. As promised, executioners in black leather were in the bunker at the time of the test.

The test on August 29, 1949, took the West completely by surprise.

To the embarrasment of President Truman, the day before he had published an intelligence estimate produced by the CIA's Office of Research

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and Estimates (ORE) which assessed that mid-1953 would be "the most probable date for a Soviet nuclear test.”

This assessment paper was coming off the presses when filter papers loaded with radiological debris from JOE-1, codename for the Soviet bomb, were being taken off aircraft in Britain and America From 1949 to 1993, at least 456 nuclear weapon tests were conducted in a remote part of eastern Kazakhstan, in the province of Semipalatinsk.

The psychopathic Beria, the architect of the 'Great Purge' responsible for the death of 30 million people, had less than four years to enjoy his success; he was brutally murdered soon after Stalins death in 1953.

But although Sue Davis upheld her brother’s last wishes up to her death, the experience changed her life.

She became a peace campaigner and CND

into her 70s and was once arrested for helping to blockade the Faslane nuclear submarine facility on the Clyde.

Sue died in November 2010 aged 83 after

Recently her long battle for justice has been revealed in a stash of letters and correspondence she left behind.

One of the most revealing documents is the illuminating letter from her solicitor that provides the real reason for the MoD’s cruel betrayal of her brother and so many others like him. The letter states:“I have always felt that any fair minded man would come to the conclusion that it was so very likely that your brother’s death was caused by radiation that Nuclear campaigner Sue Davis and (inset) the damning MoD admission they would give the relief applied activist, visited befriending other iconic for. I suppose the real Hiroshima and Nagasaki nuclear activists like answer is that they were and was a frequent Shirley Denson, whose “scared stiff” of giving visitor to the Greenham husband Eric also died any relief in your Common women’s peace after taking part in the brother’s case as it might camp. same nuclear tests as open the door to so many Squadron Leader Davis.

She was still active well more .”

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Death on Christmas Island Radiation wasn’t the only danger facing thousands of troops stationed on Christmas Island for H-Bomb tests in the 1950s, as these dramatic pictures show.

In one of the island’s grimmest days two squaddies lost their lives after recklessly plunging into the warm, azure blue waters surrounding the isolated Pacific atoll.

For just beyond the deceptively inshore waters lurked a deadly reef that plunged thousands of feet into the abyss.

The two unwary swimmers soon got into difficulties as they were caught in the deadly undercurrent generation by the reef.

Their mates could only watch helplessly as they were swept away. A helicopter scrambled to help managed to pull one of the luckless swimmers from the raging surf. But he was already dead.

The other was swept away and drowned as he struggled in the turbulent surf. Onlookers eventually managed to drag him from the water, but it was too later. He was later pronounced dead.

RAF man Chris Collins stationed with 1325 Dakota Flight managed to record the dramatic rescue attempts on a 35mm cine cameraa, as the events unfolded.

His pictures show the Whirlwind helicopter rescue as a winch man plucked one of the swimmers from the waves.

The other picture show the lifeless body of the second swimmer being brought ashore. The last picture shows the covered body on the beach.

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Nuke bomb blessings to end

Russian priests have long appeared in images sprinkling holy water on ballistic missiles, to bless them.

But the bizarre practise is set to stop if the church approves a document drawn up by an Orthodox Church commission.

"The blessing of military weapons is not

reflected in the tradition of the Orthodox Church and does not correspond to the content of the Rite," the document, on the Moscow patriarchate's website, says," adding:"Blessing or sanctifying weapons that can kill an indefinite number of people" must be excluded from pastoral

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practice."

The proposals will be discussed until June 1 and the public should also take part in the debate, the church's Moscow branch said.

Meanwhile, the armed forces are building their own sprawling cathedral at a themed park outside Moscow.

Between Heaven and Hell not be ignored.

If you want to know the true story of Britain's nuclear bomb tests and the devastating effect it had on the men who took part, then Between Heaven and Hell by award-winning investigative journalist Alan Rimmer, is a must.

Just a few of the positive reviews Between Heaven and Hell has had from readers throughout the world. reviews 5.0 out of 5 stars Reviewed in the USA. Would highly recommend to all atomic veterans & families. Easy to read & very to the point. Pity the powers that be in the UK have bags over their heads & purse strings with padlocks on. How anyone can deny the facts is beyond belief especially in this day & age. I had not realised how bad things have been among the UK vets, my only previous knowledge was with the NZ vets.

Well worth the read.

Customer Review 5.0 out of 5 stars

Customer Review 5.0 out of 5 stars Reviewed in New Zealand .

A horrifying story of lies and deception by governments of all colours which continues to this day. Exposes the Available on Amazon MOD as a corrupt and incompetant orginisation in dire need of being Extremely comprehensive. shut down and replaced.The Reviewed in the United Kingdom Verified Purchase suffering imposed by the British Many books have covered various government on those it was and is angles of these harrowing events, supposed to protect and serve is but often they have focused on one truly horrifying. One shudders to particular area and have been swamped with indigestible technical information, quite useless and baffling to the majority of the general public.

This book has filled a gap in the market. it draws together the essential essence and evidences required to formulate and understanding of the scenario.

Alan Rimmer has succeeded in writing in a compelling and easy to understand fashion - I found it difficult to put the book down and read it in a matter of days.

The importance of the wider public and our society obtaining and reading this book is colossal.

This is a book which simply can

think what lies and distortions are being perpetrated in todays's world!

Best book I have read for ages.

Reviewed in the United States.5.0 out of five stars I chose this rating because it is a very informative book. Also it gives you a history about what happened that was never known.

My Dad was on one of the New Zealand ship when they did the testing so it helps me understand what he went through.

The authoritative book that has it all 12

'I'm surprised you're still alive...'Words that still haunt me, By John Simes. dress (shirt and shorts).

I was visiting Standing nearby was Gloucester another man, a very short docks in 2001 man, who excused himself with my wife and said he couldn't help and two but overhear what I was friends and saying. we were looking around the He told me that he, too, antique centre there.

I came across a military memorabilia stall and struck up a conversation with the owner who had served in the Royal Engineers as I had.

I told him about my posting to Christmas Island and how I was attached to work with scientists from the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment (AWRE).

He was very John Simes on Christmas Island interested to learn that after one of the bomb worked for AWRE working tests, codename Flagpole with Lord Penney, the chief from the Grapple Z series, I scientist for the Bomb had visited ground zero just project.

24 hours after the blast. I He proceeded to tell me he told him I was in normal was involved in various

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experiments involving using tin canisters for measuring blast waves. He seemed to know Lord Penney quite well.

I was called away at this point by my wife, but I'll never forget this man's parting words. He said: "I'm surprised you are still alive..."

I missed the chance to ask him a few more questioins and I have always regretted it. He must have had a lot of knowledge about what was happening at the tests. Since then I have started to investigate exactly what went on at those tests. There are a lot of clues to the circumstances in the various court judgements handed down to the nuclear veterans all those years ago.

I have made my own calculations and I plan to discuss them with scientsts who know what they are talking about soon.

Did US Race Laws turn Klaus Fuchs into the greatest spy in history?

What turned Klaus Fuchs into the world's most succesful spy?

Academics are asking the question after a new document about the notorous traitor was uncovered in government archives.

It takes the form of a letter, dated 14 July 1944, from Sir James Chadwick, head of the British mission to the Manhattan Project, to scientist Rudolf Peierls.

Marked 'secret' the letter tells of Fuchs's reluctance to go to Los Alamos, the centre of the atomic bomb programme because he wanted to go back to England.

Chadwick explained: "I have...had a talk with Fuchs himself. He feels that he has a special contribution to make in England, whereas in Y he would be one of a number and can make no really significant difference

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to the work."

'Y', of course, was the codename for Los Alamos, and what puzzles academics is why would Fuchs, who had already sold atomic secrets to the Soviets, want to turn down such a golden opportunity to penetrate the heart of the A-Bomb programme?

The answer to the puzzle could lie in the memoirs of Peierls who wrote in his book Bird of Passage about his stay in New York with

Fuchs at the time.

He tells of an incident when he was greatly troubled while travelling to Washington when a black family were barred from sharing a rail carriage with white people.

Peierls and his wife Genia also noted that most of the staff at their hotel were black. He wrote: "We learned much about their problems. While there was no official segregation or descrimination, it was in practice very hard for an educated black person to find a suitable job.

"Once we noted a lift operator reading a mathematics book. In job applications, the employer was not allowed to ask about the applicant's race, and blacks with good qualifications would often get as far as an interview;

but when they walked into the room they realised that they had no chance.

"Colleagues working in government laboratories told me that for civil service appointments no interviews were held, so as not to prejudice the chances of out-of-state candidates.

"As a result, nobody in these laboratories sacked his secretary since her succesor might turn out to be black."

He then recounts how he was barred from hiring a secretary for his office because of the colour of her skin.

He was told it was impossible to employ black staff because the white employees, including those from Britain, would object.

He was told to turn black applicants down on merit, otherwise they risked being brought before a Senate committee for practising descrimination.

Outraged, Peierls wrote: “This game I would not play. I told the personnel officer that if I interviewed a black girl and she was

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suitable, I would recommend her appointment and they could take it from there."

Peierls doesn't explain what happened after that, but he added: "I was wondering how Fuchs would react to this. I knew his feelings on these matters were if anything stronger than mine."

This is a revealing comment which could easily be one of the reasons why Fuchs decided to go to Los Alamos, a move that enabled him to hand all the secrets of the atomic bomb to Stalin on a plate.

According to Fuchs's 1950 confession, he had intended only to alert the Soviet Union to the possibility of a bomb.

Then he was persuaded to give more, but he insisted at first that it would only be his own work. Later he passed on much more.

The reason for this change of heart could well have been his disgust at the same racism that had so outraged his friend and colleague Rudolf Peierls.