MoD reveals 1,000 nuked troops were removed from an official study into their deaths

A 14-month Freedom of Information battle has left a question mark over government claims that no harm befell its nuclear veterans

Veterans Brian Unthank, right, and Terry Quinlan, left, outside Downing Street to serve legal papers. Image: Susie Boniface

Evidence of more than 1,000 troops given a radiation dose was intentionally removed from an official government study into their causes of death.

Scientists ditched the data while undertaking research into the cancer rates of veterans ordered to take part in Cold War nuclear bomb tests. Their final report claimed there was no connection between their subsequent deaths and the weapon trials.

Now campaigners are demanding the Ministry of Defence stop relying on the study, already discredited after it was revealed officials had demanded rewrites to the conclusions.

Alan Owen of pressure group LABRATS said: “Veterans always knew this study was a lie - now we have proof. It’s threadbare science the MoD can no longer use to cover up its misdeeds.

“We expect to meet the Prime Minister shortly and will be asking him to drop the act, and honour the victims of human radiation experiments.”

One of the pages of data obtained from the Blue Books. These totals do not match those in the long-term government studies

It comes after I revealed the existence of a whistleblowing document showing fallout fell on the main camp after at least two of the H-bombs tested at Christmas Island. The document was reported to the Ministry of Defence in 2014, but never disclosed in multiple legal actions. It was covered up under successive governments, and held in draft format on internal servers at the Atomic Weapons Establishment until FOIs forced its publication earlier this month.

And it adds to the building momentum of the Nuked Blood Scandal, in which veterans can now prove they were medically monitored during the weapons trials, with the results now missing from their medical records. Combined with documentary evidence that government lawyers misled the courts, and a police complaint of perjury and perverting the course of justice, the government will soon have no option but to order compensation and a public inquiry.

The new revelations lie in a summary of dose records, held by the Atomic Weapons Establishment and known as “the Blue Books”. They were locked as a state secret. Only AWE staff with top-level security clearance had access, and requests to view them were repeatedly refused.

What They Don’t Want You To Know finally obtained a copy after a 14-month Freedom of Information battle, and the files show that a total of 14,290 servicemen took part in trials, held in Australia and the Pacific over more than a decade.

Of these, 6,053 had a radiation dose recorded by atomic scientists. Although many were considered low, it was known at the time there was no such thing as a safe dose, and any amount of radiation could cause injury.

An example of some of the listings - the redactions were made before release of the FOI to protect personal data, although in one case someone’s service and rank has also been removed. Those with ‘aggregate’ radiation readings indicate people with doses from more than one bomb test

But in 1985 when the government launched a cancer and mortality study, 1,031 of them were removed.

The latest official data shows a total of 20,956 men took part, and there were only 5,423 recorded doses. As a result, the total number of veterans whose deaths were examined increased by 47%, while the number of those who were exposed was slashed by 17%.

Former RAF aircraft technician John Folkes flew sampling missions through atomic clouds at Operation Buffalo in Maralinga, Australia, in 1956. He was also given a radiation badge and told to walk through a bomb crater after an explosion. But although scientists recorded doses for 967 men afterwards, almost a third were removed. Only 786 were used in the study.

John, 89, of Broadstairs, Kent, wore badges every day. He now has prostate cancer and has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress. He said: “When we handed them in they said they’d be entered in to our medical records. We thought they were keeping us safe. Increasingly, I wonder how I survived.”

Researchers have told campaigners they removed only duplications in the records, but there is no explanation as to whether all the removed doses were duplicates, or whether the doses removed were the same or different to those in the final report.

In either case, combined with the fact that MoD officials requested rewrites to the conclusion of the original study, putting cases of cancer down to “chance”, it is yet another question mark over a statistical exercise that has long been considered by the veterans to have been part of the official whitewash.

My investigation continues.