, Harrowing stories reveal decades of fallout for nuclear test veterans, STUFF, Jimmy Ellingham , June 12 2021 More than 500 young Kiwi sailors were unwitting witnesses to British nuclear testing in the Pacific in the late 1950s. Jimmy Ellingham talks to three men who were there. One by one they spoke of cancers and birth…
One by one they spoke, of cancers and birth defects in their children. “Everyone cried. It was so terrible. We decided that we’ve got to do something about this.”
Jimmy Ellingham May 17 2021 Pacific nuclear test veterans are encouraged their quest to gain a long-awaited apology for being exposed to radiation appears to have ministerial support
Kiwi sailors on the decks of the HMNZS Rotoiti and HMNZS Pukaki witnessed atomic explosions and collected weather data during Operation Grapple, Britain’s Pacific nuclear testing programme of the 1950s.
The New Zealand Nuclear Test Veterans’ Association, which represents the more than 500 Kiwi sailors involved, is pushing for a meeting with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.
The association wants an apology for the sailors, and help for medical problems in their children and grandchildren.
Janine Rankin14:21, May 02 2021
WARWICK SMITH/Stuff
Veterans of the nuclear testing programme, Richard Bishop from Christchurch and Brian Harnor from Mount Maunganui, were in Palmerston North for the launch of a photo exhibition in their honour.
Photos on a wall, names on a board and an academic study will ensure the radiation damage to 551 men who witnessed Britain’s nuclear bomb explosions in the Pacific is never forgotten. But what the New Zealand survivors of those blasts really want is an apology and compensation from the Government. The stories of the nuclear veterans and the subsequent heartache and illness affecting them and the off-spring of those who had families have been retold in Palmerston North this weekend.
DAVID UNWIN/STUFF
Tere Tahi discusses the fight for Kiwi navy veterans and their families who have endured medical conditions since their exposure to nuclear radiation, following the death of crusader Roy Sefton.
The late Roy Sefton never stopped advocating for New Zealand sailors who witnessed nuclear tests in the Pacific Ocean in the 1950s and 1970s. His work will live on,
Jimmy Ellingham reports. One by one they stood, telling tales of cancers, deformities in their children and miscarriages. Some who escaped those horrors had inner demons, mental scars left by the mushroom clouds’ fallout. It was 1995 and the New Zealand Nuclear Test Veterans’ Association was meeting for first time, almost 40 years since Kiwi sailors had witnessed British nuclear testing in the Pacific and nearly 25 years on from the navy being sent to protest French testing at Mururoa.