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An estimated 22,000 veterans and civilians will be eligible for the Nuclear Test Medal, which has been introduced to mark the 70th anniversary of the nation’s first atomic test, Downing Street said.
Some 22,000 veterans and civilians are expected to be eligible for the honour.
Seven decades after Britain detonated a nuclear bomb in the Indian Ocean, troops who took part — sometimes unknowingly — in the country’s atomic weapons tests are being recognized with a medal.
The announcement was made to coincide with the 70th anniversary of the first UK nuclear test. [2] In July 2023, the design of the new medal was released, with a commitment that many eligible veterans would receive their medals by Remembrance Sunday in November 2023.
An atomic veteran is a veteran who was exposed to ionizing radiation while present in the site of a nuclear explosion during active duty.The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs defines an atomic veteran "who, as part of his or her military service: Participated in an above-ground nuclear test, 1945–1962; or was part of the U.S. military occupation forces in/around Hiroshima/Nagasaki before ...
A 1999 study for the British Nuclear Test Veterans Association found that 30 per cent of involved veterans had died, mostly in their fifties, from cancers. [167] Veterans also claim that their children have born with disabilities, disfigurements and genetic defects as a result of the tests.
The last of 22,000 personnel who witnessed the UK’s nuclear bomb tests want answers from the PM.
Operation Totem was a pair of British atmospheric nuclear tests which took place at Emu Field in South Australia in October 1953. They followed the Operation Hurricane test of the first British atomic bomb, which had taken place at the Montebello Islands a year previously.