Antinuclear

PM Robert Menzies ‘ approval of Maraling nuclear bombing, without consulting Parlaiment

Fallout from British atomic tests at Maralinga continues, Liz Tynan – The West Australian on September 27, 2016  “……… the most damaging chapter in the history of British nuclear weapons testing in Australia. The British had carried out atomic tests in 1952 and 1956 at the Montebello Islands off WA and in 1953 at Emu Field north of Maralinga.

The British had requested and were granted a huge chunk of South Australia to create a “permanent” atomic weapons test site, after finding the conditions at Montebello and Emu Field too remote and unworkable.

Australia’s then prime minister, Robert Menzies, was all too happy to oblige. Back in September 1950 in a phone call with his British counterpart, Clement Attlee, he had said yes to nuclear testing without even referring the issue to his Cabinet……

He was also exploring ways to power civilian Australia with atomic energy and – whisper it – even to buy an atomic bomb with an Australian flag on it (for more background, see here ). While Australia had not been involved in developing either atomic weaponry or nuclear energy, she wanted in now. Menzies’ ambitions were such that he authorised offering more to the British than they requested.

While Australia was preparing to sign the Maralinga agreement, the supply minister, Howard Beale, wrote in a top-secret 1954 cabinet document:

Although [the] UK had intimated that she was prepared to meet the full costs, Australia proposed that the principles of apportioning the expenses of the trial should be agreed whereby the cost of Australian personnel engaged on the preparation of the site, and of materials and equipment which could be recovered after the tests, should fall to Australia’s account…..

.Australia….. stood by while Britain’s nuclear and military elite trashed a swathe of Australia’s landscape and then, in the mid-1960s, promptly left. Britain carried out 12 major weapons tests in Australia: three at Montebello, two at Emu Field and seven at Maralinga.

The British also conducted hundreds of “minor trials”, including the highly damaging Vixen B radiological experiments, which scattered long-lived plutonium over a big area at Maralinga. The British did two clean-up operations — Operation Hercules in 1964 and Operation Brumby in 1967 — both of which made the contamination problems worse.

The damage done to indigenous people in the vicinity of all three test sites is immeasurable and included displacement, injury and death.

Service personnel from several countries, but particularly Britain and Australia, also suffered — not least because of their continuing fight for the slightest recognition of the dangers they faced.

Many of the injuries and deaths allegedly caused by the British tests have not been formally linked to the operation, a source of ongoing distress for those involved.

The cost of the clean-up exceeded $100 million in the late 1990s. Britain paid less than half, and only after protracted pressure and negotiations.

We still don’t know the full extent of the effects on service personnel and local communities.

Despite years of legal wrangling, those communities’ suffering has never been properly recognised or compensated.

Why did Australia allow it to happen? The answer is that Britain asserted its nuclear colonialism just as an anglophile prime minister took power in Australia, and after the United States made nuclear weapons research collaboration with other nations illegal, barring further joint weapons development with the UK.

Menzies’ political agenda emphasised national security and tapped into Cold War fears. While acting in what he thought were Australia’s interests (as well as allegiance to the mother country), he displayed a reckless disregard for the risks of letting loose huge quantities of radioactive material without adequate safeguards.

Six decades later, those atomic weapons tests still cast their shadow across Australia’s landscape.

They stand as testament to the dangers of government decisions made without close scrutiny, and as a reminder — at a time when leaders are once again preoccupied with international security — not to let it happen again.

Liz Tynan is a senior lecturer at James Cook University and author of Atomic Thunder: The Maralinga Story. This article was originally published at theconversation.com   https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/32736202/fallout-from-british-atomic-tests-at-maralinga-continues/#page1

September 28, 2016 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, history, weapons and war