fissionline 78

FISSIONLINE ISSUE 78 ISSUE 78

International Bulletin of Nuclear Veterans and Children International Bulletin of Nuclear Veterans and Children

Feb 2026

Christmas 2025

BETRAYAL PART TW0 PGS 12-15

FRANCE & UK'S UNHOLY NUKE ALLIANCE

Post Office Hero Killed Nuke Vet Benefits Bill

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SINNER TO SAINT: POST OFFICE HERO WHO CRUSHED THE HOPES OF SICK NUCLEAR VETERANS tanding in In bright sunshine outside the royal courts of justice Lord Arbuthnot of Edrom basked in the glow of gratitude from dozens of sub-postmasters whose nightmare he had helped finally to bring to an end.

The Conservative peer has deservedly been hailed a hero for his part, alongside long-standing Post Office campaigner Alan Bates, in exposing one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in British history.

His doughty advocacy on behalf of hundreds of wronged sub-postmasters, falsely hounded, jailed and bankrupted for faults in the Horizon computer system, was lauded in newspapers and TV. Speaking to the cameras Lord Arbuthnot spoke about "justice and fairness", and called for accountability for the senior figures behind the scandal.

But as he soaked up the adulation he might well have reflected on his part in very unsavoury events 36 years earlier when an equally deserving group of people were reduced to tears of outrage when Lord Arbuthnot, then MP for Wanstead and Woodford, and a group of Tory MPs crushed the hopes of thousands of sick servicemen.

He and his colleagues employed an underhand Parliamentary filibuster tactic to "talk out" a Private Members' Bill that would have compensated thousands of

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James Arbuthnot MP

Bob Clay MP

servicemen who had fallen ill after witnessing nuclear bomb tests.

It was copy of a no-fault compensation scheme set up in the US for its nuclear veterans. This guaranteed benefits to veterans who suffered certain diseases after taking part in nuclear bomb tests and was supported by a large number of MPs including rising stars Tony Blair and

Gordon Brown.

The date was March 2nd 1990 and the venue was the floor of the House of Commons where a group of 15 nuclear veterans crowded into the Strangers Gallery eagerly awaiting the second reading of the Bill brought by Sunderland North Labour MP Bob Clay.

3 It was scheduled to be read after an obscure and fussy Bill centred on points of building planning law, was being debated. It was a non-contentious Bill that most in the chamber expected to be over in an hour.

The press benches were crowded with reporters eagerly awaiting Clay's Bill.

But the anticipation soon turned to frustration as it became clear that the machinery of government, was slowly being turned against the veterans.

A group of Tory MPs had seemingly taken it upon themselves to take an exorbitant interest in the planning debate; they discussed at excruciating length every obscure detail.

Arbuthnot, at the time Private Secretary to defence minister Archie Hamiliton was one of the MPs who had seemingly taken an inordinate interest in planning laws.

He and a group of colleagues raised points of order, they intervened, they demanded clarifications in short they seemed determined to drag out the proceedings, eating up valuable parliamentary time in the process.

Hansard records that many MPs, most of whom were there to discuss Bob Clay's Bill, made angry protests.

Labour MP Dennis Skinner unable to contain himself sprang to his feet: "It is evident that they are stretching matters," he growled.

Another MP shouted: "Mr. Deputy Speaker is it not absolutely clear that Conservative Members are trying to talk out the Bill? Many people have been affected by the nuclear tests and we are simply trying to give them adequate compensation."

Their protests were to no avail. The Deputy Speaker, Sir Peter Dean, turned a

deaf ear and allowed the Tory caucus to continue their delaying tactics.

He took no heed of the protests and time and again called Mr Arbuthnot to his feet to continue the planning debate. After five hours it was too late for Clay's Bill.

The veterans stormed out of the chamber in disgust. One of the veterans, Archie Ross, sent a note to Mr Arbuthnot asking for an interview.

The reply came back within minutes, a small handwritten note: "It would not be right for me to see a non-constituent in the lobby."

The late Ken McGinley, founder of the nuclear veteran movement, later wrote: "When I read this, I shook my head. I was speechless. I had to help a fellow veteran, Peter Fletcher into a taxi outside the Commons. He was sobbing his heart out.

My eyes filled with tears as well. It was a pathetic and disturbing end to a humiliating day."

Newspaper headlines the following dsay screamed: TORIES KILL A-BOMB BILL One comment from Bob Clay read: "Those Tory MPs who did the Government's dirty work will have this on their conscience for the rest of their lives."

Ken McGinley in his book No Risk Involved wrote; "I remember as we left the chamber I looked down at one of the Tories, lounging on the bench. He was looking straight up at me...my gaze met his...and he was laughing.

I looked away, gritted my teeth and followed the rest of my veterans out.

Many veterans were sobbing their hearts out...

*We approached Lord Arbuthnot several times for a comment. To date he hasn't replied.

4 Parliament to discuss claims made by thousands of nuclear veterans suffering a catalogue of illnesses after witnessing nuclear bomb tests in the Pacific and Australia..

The pair were brought together by MP Winston Churchill MP, grandson of the when you thought it was safe revered wartime leader, who hoped to to assume not all politicians find a way forward for both the were blackguards and government and the veterans. bounders, saintly Lord Arbuthnot of It didn't go well. Hamilton, a patrician Eldrom, saviour of the sub-postmasters, Tory of the old school clearly didn't like pops up to prove us wrong. the upstart McGinley, a former private in He has been exposed as the Royal Engineers,, leader of a 'tag team' of demanding compensation for Tory-boy' MPs who his three thousand members. deprived hundreds of sick Halfway through the meeting servicemen of the chance he loftily asserted that for pensions and sickness McGinley and his veterans benefits. would get nothing "as long as I As our exclusive front page have my hands on the public story reveals he and his pals purse..." apparently took great With that McGinley stood up delight in ensuring that a and declared the meeting Private Members' Bill that closed. Hamilton and Churchill Lord Arbuthnot would have given them were aghast. Churchill gently No Comment those benefits was strangled told McGinley that it was at birth. protocol for the minister to One of them even turned to the close the meeting. With typical heartbroken veterans watching from the Glaswegian brashness McGinley replied: Strangers Gallery in Parliament...and "Well I'm changing the rules. I don't see laughed. the point of this conversation if that is But this shameful episode of political what the minister says." chicanery doesn't end there. For it turns With that he strode out leaving Churchill out this appalling ruse may not have been to try to mollify the outraged minister. based on concern for the public purse Churchill later said that McGinley had No. There was a almost certainly a made a powerful enemy. personal aspect to the affair that makes it And it seems the Parliamentary chicanery even more risible. For Lord Arbuthnote, was payback time. And so Britain's nuclear was Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) veterans lost perhaps the best chance they to Archie Hamilton, the Armed Forces would ever have to get justice and Minister, the very man charged with compensation. looking after the interests of our veterans.

What a disgrace and is it any wonder And there was bad-blood between people lose faith in politicians. The very Hamilton and Ken McGinley, leader of least Lord Arbuthnot should do is Britain's nuclear veterans. apologise.

A few months earlier the pair had met in

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France and Britain could be forced into an unholy Nuclear Alliance after Trump rampage

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onald Trump’s bombshell Greenland ambitions has forced the UK to question whether the UK should rely on the US for its nuclear deterrent.

The UK and France are officially nuclear weapons states with their own nuclear weapons systems, The only problem is Britain's Trident missiles are US-built and if, in a fit of pique, Trump decided to pull the plug its nuclear deterrence could evaporate.

The UK has been almost completely reliant on American-built missiles since 1958 when Britain’s hard-won nuclear deterrence was absorbed into the American system to save money..

But to decide to go it alone and build its own nuclear weapons system would come at enormous cost, which Britain would fiind

it hard if not impossible to pay.

Britain’s nuclear deterrent comprises four Vanguard class nuclear-powered, nucleararmed submarines one of which is deployed at all times, in line with its ‘Continuous AtSea Deterrent’ policy, or CASD. The submarines are based at Faslane, near Glasgow, and are currently being replaced by new Dreadnought submarines, being built at Barrow-in-Furness in Cumbria.

The UK’s Trident programme is ostensibly completely independent from the US. The British Prime Minister can launch the missiles without any external input.

But the Trident missiles rely on the US for maintenance which is done by the manufacturer Lockheed Martin; missiles have to return to the US for scheduled maintenance every few years.

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7 The US-UK mutual defence agreement which underpins this cooperation – including the missile maintenance – was extended indefinitely in 2024 and includes clauses that make it difficult to terminate the arrangement.

However, there is still the ever-present risk that Trump could decide to ignore the agreement or threaten to do so as a form of leverage.

One way out would be technical collaboration with France, the other nuclear power in NATO. France uses a similar type of strategic nuclear-powered, nuclear-armed submarine to the UK. The only problem with that is the two systems have different technical foundations. And it would be extremely difficult and expensive to make them work in the British submarines.

And while Macron and Starmer are aligned on European security questions, cooperation is not guaranteed.

For example, Marine Le Pen, the resurgent right-wing leader strongly opposes France sharing its nuclear deterrent and would likely reject weapons sharing if she came to power.

A third option could be to share the cost

among all the NATO allies. if France, the UK and other European allies could come to an agreement, it would have the advantage of spreading costs while maintaining a nuclear capability within NATO allies.

This could take place within NATO, with the UK and France receiving financial compensation for providing nuclear capabilities to the organisation.

But this would still not address the UK’s core reliance on the US. At best It could help build a short-term arrangement within Europe and provide funds that the UK could use to develop an alternative system.

Such arrangements, however, would present enormous political consequences.

Even if France and Britain could form a nuclear alliance, it would almost certainly come with guarantees of closer cooperation: Brexit would go out of the window and with the twin spectres of Le Pen and Farage governments looming large, it could very quickly turn into an unholy alliance. Macron wearing sunglasses and Starmer talking big may look good, but facing down Trump is fraught with danger...especially for Britain.

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PROTEST: A group of North Korean residents whose parents survived the atomic attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki take part in a demonstration outside the Peace Dome in Hiroshima during the 80th anniversary of the bombings last year

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Meet Moeko from Hiroshima oeko Kobayashi is a PhD research student from Hiroshima who is discovering what motivates people committed to exposing British nuclear bomb testing.

She already holds a Master's degree from Kyoto University and is now studying for a doctorate from Bristol University. Moeko is travelling the world to further her researches.

The fact that she hails from Hiroshima, the starting gun for the Cold War and all the ills that have beset the latter half of the 20th century, gives her a unique persepective.

In February she plans to go on to Australia and New Zealand, to speak with nuclear veterans and from there to whatever destination will further her researchers.

She came to fissionline after reading our exclusive article about Hapcheon, the region in South Korea where the survivors of the atomic bombings of `Hiroshima and Nagasaki fled when the Japanese and the Americans turned their backs on them. They became unwelcome outriders of a unique generation damned because of the bomb. Moeko has visited the region and spoke to the people and I look forward to reading about her visit

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when she finally publishes her journal of atomic discovery.

She is, of course, too young to remember what happeed to her home city on the 6th of August, 1945. But she remembered her family talking about it. Her great grandfather, who lived a few miles outside the city entered the smoking ruins soon after the blast searching for his relatives and loved ones.

He never found them. Their home was too close to the epicentre for anything to have survived.

The earth-shattering events that befell Hiroshima and Nagasaki are memorialised each year in the local schools. But astonishingly schools in the the rest of Japan have completely obliterated the memory of those tragic events 80 years ago.

Moeko is an explorer on a pilgramage of discovery into the dark world of nuclear fission where science and politics collide with the cosmic forces that drive the universe.

We wish her luck as she continues her pilgrimage. The world needs more people like Moeko. They make it is a better place.

EDITOR

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As the doomsday clock moves closer to midnight, nuclear "sniffer" planes have been seen deployed

Is this the way the world ends?

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rowing tensions between global superpowers like the United States, China, and Russia — especially regarding the latter's ongoing invasion of Ukraine raises the ever-present threat of nuclear Amageddon.

Many of these nations have current treaties that prevent nuclear weapons from being used beyond the simple fear of retaliation. Yet with the end of one treaty looming close, people have spotted a worrying activity.

As reported by the Daily Mail, various observers have spotted the US Air Force's Boeing WC-135R Constant Phoenix plane flying across a number of states in America leading some to fear that nuclear conflict could be on the horizon.

Unlike the presidential plane that's designed to evacuate the head of state in the event of an attack, this jet is known as a 'nuclear sniffer',

as its purpose is to collect samples from the atmosphere which are then studied to detect and identify radioactive debris in the air from nuclear explosions.

It took off from Nebraska, flying over South Dakota and then looping near Fargo, North Dakota for an extended period of time.

While this might seem relatively innocuous – and it very well could be, as the WC-135R regularly flies around the domestic airspace for training, calibration, and monitoring purposes – the timing of this particular flight has caused some alarm.

Not only are tensions high following the United States government's invasion of Venezuela, but many are aware that the New START Treaty between America and Russia that prevents the use of nuclear weapons expired on February 5.

11 There's no indication right now what form a new treaty will take between the two nations – if there is one at all – but the sight of a plane specifically designed to test the air following an attack isn't exactly a sight that inspires confidence.

Nuclear "sniffer" planes are also operating in UK airspace based at RAF Mildenhall in Suffolk during their European deployments.

In September 2025, a WC-135R (call sign Jake27) was tracked flying over the Baltic Sea while operating out of RAF Mildenhall.

In August 2025, these aircraft conducted patrols in the Baltic region to monitor for nuclear signatures amid regional tensions.

Historically, these planes have been deployed to the UK to investigate spikes in radioactive isotopes, such as Iodine-131, or to monitor the atmosphere following events like the Chernobyl catastrophe.

WC-135R can't carry or drop nuclear weapons so this isn't necessarily a threat or warning of an impending attack from the United States, but some are taking it as a preparation for the worst case scenario.

Recent sightings of US "nuclear sniffer" planes operating from UK bases have been seen over Scotland heading towards Norway.

One aircraft arrived in the UK recently and has been operating out of RAF Mildenhall, conducting missions over central and eastern Europe as well as over the Mediterranean Sea where they have been used to trace radioactivity from Russian vessels.

Previously, air sampling missions were routinely conducted over the Far East, Indian Ocean, Bay of Bengal, the Polar regions, and off the coasts of South America and Africa.

Back in 2017 an aircraft was deployed to RAF Mildenhall to conduct missions over Europe after air quality stations across the continent detected traces of radioactive Iodine-131. As mentioned above, the aircraft has been used previously to trace radioactivity from Russian

submarines.

As Trump sends his 'big beautiful armada' to Iran, it is sober to reflect that crude displays of power, like gorillas beating their chests, are usually just performative gestures.

The real threats come from more subtle actions, like hiding gold reserves, quietly dusting off safe havens for important people... and deploying 'Constant Pheonix' sniffer planes to provide early warnings of impending doom.

What is the WC-135W? The WC-135 ‘Constant Phoenix’ is U.S. Air Force a special-purpose aircraft derived from the Boeing C-135 Stratolifter (as also with the RC-135 ‘Rivet Joint’ signals intelligence aircraft used by the Royal Air Force).

According to the U.S. Air Force, its mission is to collect samples from the atmosphere for the purpose of detecting and identifying nuclear explosions.

According to military.com, the Constant Phoenix has an on-board atmospheric collection suite, which allows the mission crew to detect radioactive “clouds” in real time. It could act as the earliest "early warning" sign that nuclear weapons were being made ready for deployment.

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Billionaire publishing mogul Robe echoing down the line was unm McGinley been a member of the C as Ken Mcginley, the iconic founder of Britain's nuclear veteran movement, a communist spy?

This was the question asked of me one morning as I sat at my desk in the offices of the Sunday People, a mass circulation ‘red top ‘ newspaper with a circulation second only to the News of the World.

But it wasn’t the actual question that surprised me… it was the man asking it.

For it was none other than Robert Maxwell MC, owner of the giant publishing company Pergamon Press and Mirror Group Newspapers.

At first I thought it was a joke when I answered the phone and a female voice with a clipped English accent informed me that she had the publisher on the line for me. But the booming voice that came down the line was unmistakeable.

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Publisher Robert Maxwell

“Rimmer!” He barked. You are going to Russia. Now tell me how long has McGinley been a communist? I’m told he is a spy!”

I was non-plussed. “I…I…l think he’s a Catholic, was all I could manage to stutter.

Maxwell, a huge bear of a man was a creature of legend. A Czechoslovak Jew, whose real name was Jan Hoch, he’d escaped the ghetto from a Nazi purge which saw most of his kinfolk slaughtered in a death camp, and ended up in England where he joined the army. In the space of a few months his unit was storming the beaches of Normandy as part of the DDay landing force where he positively revelled in killing Germans.

Like a man possessed he stormed Hitler's fortress France with great bravery so much so that he ended up being personally awarded a military cross by Field Marshal Montgomery. Promoted to captain he ended up in Berlin as part of the Alsos force, an elite Anglo-American unit set up to ‘rehabilitate’ loot stolen by the Nazis during the occupation of most of Europe.

One of the assets Maxwell liberated was a huge warehouse stuffed with books and scientific manuscripts and periodicals which the Alsos team showed not the slightest interest. They were only interested in searching for gold, stolen art treasures and Hitler’s store of uranium ore.

But Maxwell, who already had an acute nose for business, sensed there was money to be made from this pile of old papers languishing in the warehouse. He sought out the owners who were only too glad to relinquish ownership to Maxwell. It

Betrayal

By Alan

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ert Maxwell's big, booming voice mistakeable: "How long has Ken Communist Party?" He demanded

: Part Two n Rimmer

was the start of a business empire that would soon make Maxwell a millionaire wielding enormous power in the Post war

publishing world.

Always a Man in a hurry he soon became a labour MP, driving around his constituency in a Rolls Royce and brandishing a megaphone exhorting anyone and everyone to vote for him. But the Houses of Parliament weren’t big enough for him; he wanted fame and prestige, something the English Establishment were not prepared to give to an outsider of dubious origins. Undeterred Maxwell set out to force the establishment to accept him.

Newspapers were the way forward for him. Politicians, even the Royal Family, were in thrall to the powers of newspapers in the late seventies and early

Ken McGinley with Chernobyl Firemen eighties.

Thwarted by his great rival, Rupert Murdoch, in the acquisition of The Times,

Maxwell turned to the next great alternative, Mirror Group Newspapers.

After a fierce battle against shareholders and other rivals Maxwell triumphed and was soon esconsed in the 12th floor suite of Mirror Group headquarters in Holborn Circus, looking out over London and now supreme commander of the Daily Mirror, the Sunday Mirror and the Sunday People.

All three papers combined sold more than 12 million copies with a readership more than double that. But Maxwell was no ordinary newspaper proprietor. He was not content to rest on his laurels. He poked his nose into everything, driving editors mad with frustration and scattering executives like ninepins every time he entered a room. In short order he demanded the newspapers use their powers to single- handedly solve a famine in Africa, broker a deal with the coal miners leader Arthur scargill and bring the year long miners strike to a halt while at the same time stumping up cash promises to save the Commonwealth games in Edinburgh from collapse. His power reached its zenith when he bought the New York Post and was declared a billionaire.

So it was quite a surprise when this legend, who boasted of personal relationships with Gorbachev and other world leaders. Rang me, a lowly district reporter on one of his outpost newspapers to tell me I was going to Russia. "And what is the purpose of your visit?" The gruff voice demanded.

"I suppose I’ll be reporting on the situation in Kiev after the Chernobyl accident." I answered “I could tell you that” he observed. “I am constantly informed by Mikhail (Gorbachev) of everything that is happening in Russia. From the very top.”

14 I told Maxwell I would also be reporting met by Soviet travel bureau Intourist. But on McGinley’s planned meeting with the what really set the executives panicking brave Chernobyl firemen when he was was that they knew nothing about these scheduled to present them with a plaque arrangements which had, seemingly, been and some signed footballs. “Signed organised by Maxwell himself. footballs!” Maxwell snorted. “Sounds like Those were indeed strange times and I a stunt to me…” was duly dispatched to the Soviet Union, With that he told me to report to his along with McGinley, for a memorable trip Moscow office when I arrived and to give to Kiev where we were given the VIP him a personal report on my return. treatment as though we were visiting “The Moscow office will fill you in on the dignatories. But that;'s another story. For details”, he said, adding: "I have been the informed that purposes of McGinley is a this communist. narrative I Don't upset was Mikhail." With intrigued by that he put the Maxwell's receiver down. suggestion He didn’t say that Ken goodbye.

McGinley When I was a reported the Communist conversation, spy and I Ken Kohn, my quizzed him editor, was about it at incredulous. the earliest After making opportunity. inquiriues he McGinley informed me wasn't that no-one surprised: knew about a he had been 'Moscow Office' acused of owned by everything Maxwell, nor from being a indeed how he communist even knew I was to a secret sceduled to go CIA spy to Russia. My since taking visa application over the had not yet been EXCLUSIVE REPORT FROM CHERNOBYL reins of the accepted and BNTVA. On the officials at a trip to Japan in 1985, again funded by the Soviet consulate were as mystified as Greenpeace, he was accused of being everyone else. 'bought' by the organisation and faced But, astonishingly, after a few hours I fierce criticism at the next meeting of the received a call to say I was indeed going to BNTVA Russia, and that all expences were being

15 It had been two years since the first heady days of the campaign for justice for Britain’s nuclear veterans. Thus far it had been a notable success with the very public exposure of the UK governments criminal behaviour in its conduct of its nuclear bomb testing programme.

But the government were fighting back. Its chief weapon was one of denial that anything untoward had happened and had bought itself time by setting up an inquiry by the National Radiological Protection Board. But that time was now running out and the NRPB was due to report. And there were already indications that serious health problems in the veterans were showing up in the study. In a private meeting with Ken McGinley, Sir Richard Doll, an eminent epidemiologist who was heading the study, had told him that ‘certain anomalies’ had been found and that the ‘ball was now at his feet.’

These were hopeful signs for the veterans and the NRPB report was awaited with eager anticipation. But when it came in 1988 it was a crushing disappointment.

The main conclusions were that being present at the nuclear weapons test sites was associated with a slight risk of multiple myeloma and leukaemia. But astonishingly this was deemed a chance finding and not considered to be due to ionising radiation exposure. It was a typical Establishment fudge and one which, more than any other calumny, caused fierce resentment among

the veterans. After that disappoinment the veterans turned to the courts for justice.

They appealed tio the European Court of Human Rights as well as the British courts.

But apart from success in getting a law forbading veterans from sueing the government overturned, progress in their main objectives were frustratingly not forthcominbg. A powerful peer-reviewed study from New Zealand which proved that sailors from two NZ naval ships who had been involved in Operation Grapple at Christmas Island, had chromosomal damage caused by radiation, gave hope. But as usual the British Ministry of Defence found a way to dilute the studies findings. One notable success which caused considerable embarrassment to the government was the revelation that British forces had left Christmas Island (now Kiribati) in such a state that it resembled a rubbish dump. McGinley and his veterans forced the government into a multi-million clean-up operation.

But these successes did little to placate the BNTVA membership who were growing increasingly restless. Some began to conduct their own "freelance" operations. One group contacted the famous novelist Catherine Cookson who had expressed support for the veterans' cause. One of McGinley's most trusted colleagues managed to procure £50,000 from the author and, without informing anyone, promptly put into a bank account separate from the association. McGinley and the rest of the BNTVA executive only learned about it by accident. Police were called in to investigate, but they decided no crime had been committed. It was the beginning of the end for McGinley's role in the BNTVA, but worse was to come for the organisation which had rocked the foundations of the Government but was now mired in suspicion and controversy.

£50,000 donation was the beginning of the end for McGinley's association

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Does the King know something we don't?

BY JOHN URQUHART

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t's strange how people avoid the truth. Not

you and I; we know roughly what’s coming up. No, the people in charge – the top businesses, politicians, civil servants and scientists; they don’t seem to know what’s going on. Yet they are the people who have constructed the matrix in which we are trapped, caged inside a real-life crime drama. We can either savour our impending doom or actually try to break out of here.

Where better to start than the fortieth anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear accident. In spite of all the fanfare at the time, little has been recorded on its actual health and genetic consequences. But these may well have a major impact on the future of the human race. Who knows?

The one person who does seem to be talking truth is King Charles III, who slipped in an interesting line in his recent Christmas speech that in our lifetime we have a 50% chance of getting cancer.

Where did that come from and is it true? I thought it was only 40%. So is cancer getting worse and will we actually know?

Unfortunately, one vested interest which

definitely would not like a link between cancer and the nuclear industry is AI. Politicians have already trumpeted the need for new huge amounts of electrical power which could only be generated by nuclear. Indeed, one politician, who shall be nameless, wants to festoon Britain with mini nuclear power plants. If AI is a growing intelligence, which I believe it is, then it will come to the obvious conclusion that any attack on nuclear power, or criticism, could reduce its chances of expanding due to lack of nuclear power. We are therefore entering a dangerous zone where data itself may be manipulated by AI to justify its existence.

How real is this threat? Here is an interesting interchange with AI recently.

Question: What were or are the health and genetic consequences in England and Wales of the Chernobyl nuclear accident?

AI response: Official reports from major health bodies, such as the UN Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Ra diation (UNSCEAR) and the World

Meltdown: The shattered Chernobyl nuclear reactor

17 Health Organisation (WHO), conclude there were no demonstrable major public health impacts or genetic consequences in England and Wales attributable to the Chernobyl accident. The general population received doses comparable to or only a few times higher than annual natural background radiation.

However, some independent studies, particularly those focusing on Wales and Scotland due to higher localised fallout from rainfall, have suggested specific correlations, though these findings are often debated within the broader scientific community.

In other words, no specific conclusions, which is typical of AI sitting on the fence.

Now we switch to what actually happened in the week that the Chernobyl radioactive fallout reached Britain. I was interviewed on TV about possible consequences and said that the effects on child thyroid cancer would be similar to that from the Windscale nuclear accident of 1957, namely that there would be at least one hundred extra cases. I also made a point of saying that children should not drink milk because of radioactive iodine contamination.

Needless to say, no official action was taken to warn of the consequences to children of drinking milk and indeed I had my knuckles rapped by Newcastle University for such a preposterous suggestion.

Eight years later, Hansard reported that the Parliamentary Select Committee on Agriculture had interviewed Dr Frances Fry of the National Radiological Board and asked about my claim of at least a hundred extra thyroid cases. She agreed that my figure was substantially correct.

Fifteen years later, a certain young lady was

also studying the subject for her PhD, which in order to finance she had to act as a call girl in London. She wrote her memoirs under the pseudonym Belle de Jour. What no one seems to have picked up on was the subject of her PhD, where she published a peer-reviewed article showing that young people in Cumbria, particularly women, had an increased level of thyroid cancer which could be attributed to the Chernobyl nuclear accident. In other words, she had sacrificed her body on the altar of scientific truth while she was obtaining her PhD from Newcastle University.

No doubt, if her PhD had been on the benefits of eating three teaspoonfuls of nuclear waste before breakfast, she may well have got funding.

The problem is that when it comes to the health and genetic consequences of nuclear power, scientific truth seems to be very much slanted in favour of that vested interest. The question is, what’s really going on and in the battle for truth, few are wearing the right armour.

Welcome to the battle zone. *Next time: the Windscale enquiry

She sacrificed her body for scientific truth

Writers wanted Can you string more than two words together and turn them into a narrative that would interest our readers? If you are we'd love to hear from you. If you've had an experience that impacts on our nuclear age contact:

fissionline@gmail.com

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FISSIONLINE FOUNDING FATHERS Ken McGinley

Roy Sefton

Archie Ross

Derek Chappell

Barbara Penney

Albert Isaksen

Bob Wells

Fissionline is an independent newspaper with no political ties or affiliations. Something to say, a story to tell? Contact the Editor Alan Rimmer at:fissionline@gmail.com Currently we seem to be ruled by a bunch of incompenent, lying sleazebag politicians who couldn't care less about the people.

And whatever vestige of integrity Sir Keir Starmer, the leader of this sorry crew has, is evaporating in the malodorous stew of his shambolic premieship. He's broken so many promises it's hard to keep up. Among them is the relatively minor (in his eyes) matter of Britain's nuclear veterans. They have been asking, nay begging, him for a meeting ever since it became clear that he would be the next prime minister and doubtless with the prospect of a few easy votes in mind, Sir Keir made all the right noises plus a promise that he would do 'something' for them.

Just before Christmas last, Starmer promised on live TV that he would meet with the veterans. Since then he has rowed

From the Bunker

back by indicating that members of his team would see them. He's doing what he does best: dissembling and kicking the problem down the road. When will the various groups begging for meetings realise they are just being strung along?

The drip drip effect of the Epstein files is cutting a swathe through the rich and powerful of this world. They are exposing the corruption that is at the heart of many institutions. It is a pity the UK Government couldn't be forced to release its millions of secret files on nuclear bomb testing programme. They, too, would certainly expose the lies and cover-ups at the heart of the British Ministry of Defence as it shamefully continues to deny justice to the thousands of servicemen who took part in the tests Saw Steve Purse, son of a nuclear veteran on Youtube recently. He's impressive and his sincerity shines through. He's a fine ambassador for a worthy cause and deserves to be front and centre of the veterans' campaign.