Britain's nuclear veterans take fight to Parliament
Documentary screening in Parliament highlights the innumerable health problems suffered by veterans in years since Cold War nuclear tests
Brian Unthank straightens his tie, somewhat uncomfortably, in a committee room at the Houses of Parliament. Unthank is now 88, watching himself on screen in a new documentary, describing the time he saw a nuclear bomb explode.
Three times, to be precise.
“I saw every bone, every bloodline, every sinew through my hands”, he tells me. “A live x-ray, that’s what was going through my eyes.”
Unthank is a nuclear test veteran, one of approximately 22,000 British servicemen who witnessed the detonation of atomic and thermonuclear weapons in tests conducted by the British government in the 1950s, and by the US government in the 1960s.
The tie, yellow and black, matches the emblem of campaign group LABRATS International, who represent approximately 1200 of these living veterans, their descendants, and communities affected by the radioactive fallout of tests across the globe.
LABRATS is currently pursuing a legal case against the Ministry of Defence (MoD). They demand the release of medical records - allegedly containing blood and urine test results - held for the veterans who were exposed to nuclear weapons in their youth, and claim to have suffered untold medical consequences since.
Unthank is joined in parliament by the group’s founder, Alan Owen, and a small gathering of cross-party MPs including John McDonnell. They are here to watch the documentary Our Planet, The People, My Blood - directed by filmmaker Daniel Everitt-Lock - which traces the impact of nuclear testing worldwide.
Brian Unthank in the Houses of Parliament. Credit: Jack Prentice
Brian Unthank in the Houses of Parliament. Credit: Jack Prentice
Operation Grapple - Britain's hydrogen bomb
Unthank celebrated his 20th birthday on Christmas Island, located north-west of Australia in the Indian Ocean, where he was stationed as part of Operation Grapple between 1957 and 1958.
He was not told why he was being shipped to the other side of the world for his National Service. Some men, hardly older than boys, stayed at home; others went to fight in Korea, or saw the Berlin Wall rise in Germany. Unthank was sent to experience man’s deadliest creation, in its deadliest form yet.
He watched three explosions, the biggest equivalent to 3 million tons of TNT. The bomb dropped on Hiroshima was equivalent to 15,000 tons of TNT. Unthank stood around 20 miles away, wearing a t-shirt, shorts and a pair of boots. And he covered his eyes with his fists.
“You turn to look and there’s this boiling ball of fire, there's a big thick black line hurtling towards you. It hits you, it throws you into the ground as if you’re a ragdoll. It burns you, but it doesn't blister you."
“That bomb was 20 miles away and exploded 5000 feet above sea-level. And that was your first bomb, ‘okay, back to work.’ No apology, nothing.”
"You turn to look and there’s this boiling ball of fire, there's a big thick black line hurtling towards you. It hits you, it throws you into the ground as if you’re a ragdoll"
- Brian Unthank -
Unthank says that three months after his return to the UK, all of his teeth fell out. He has had 13 miscarriages, bearing four living children with his first wife. A daughter was born with a double womb, and a son was born with two large holes in his heart. A grandchild had melanoma growing on his forehead at 14 months old.
He has two children with his second wife, a son and daughter who have visual and spinal conditions respectively.
In December, Brian had surgery to remove a skin cancer from his face - the 98th skin cancer removed from his body since he watched the tests. He has had bladder cancer and two heart attacks.
“I’ve been asked before whether I’m angry," he says. "What is there to be angry about? Being angry only burns inside me, eats me up, because I can’t clear that anger.
“It's a waste of time fretting ourselves because no one is listening.”
The MoD has never formally recognised being present at the tests is the cause of such conditions. It has not provided monetary compensation to nuclear veterans for their service, and it has not apologised for sending servicemen to watch these weapons explode.
The US government set up the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act in 1990, offering payments of up to $100,000 (£72,000) for those who could prove they were irradiated. In return, claimants could not pursue legal action in perpetuity. America’s atomic veterans received a formal apology from Bill Clinton in 1995.
France, Russia and China have each provided a specific compensation scheme for their nuclear veterans. In Britain, the compensation available is a standard War Pension claim, which can be made by all veterans who feel they have suffered injury or illness in the course of their service.
“We don’t exist as far as they’re concerned”, Unthank continues, “and we never will, unless someone stands up and says 'we got it wrong, as a nation we apologise and we're going to get it sorted out.’ But you know and I know that isn’t going to happen. That's my story".
Life on Christmas Island and beyond
Britain’s first nuclear test was codenamed Operation Hurricane, and took place west of Australia in 1952. Three further test series on the Australian coast and in its outback preceded Operation Grapple in the summer of 1957.
Three smaller explosions were followed by ‘Grapple X’ in November, Britain’s largest bomb yet, equivalent to 1.8 million tons of TNT.
Michael Richard Clark, who operated a barge at the docks in east London, arrived shortly afterwards. His daughter, Stacy, says he thought “he had struck gold” being sent to the tropical Christmas Island.
Clark stayed on the island for an entire year, witnessing five detonations: Britain’s biggest ever bomb, ’Grapple Y’, and four smaller ‘Grapple Z’ tests. He built roads, and swam in the sea with friends. Photographs show them posing alongside boys from the island and partying together with the men.
He returned home, marrying his wife Rose and having three daughters. Stacy is in the middle.
Clark came into contact with the British Nuclear Test Veterans Association (BNTVA) in 1991, after he was diagnosed with bone cancer and lung cancer.
BNTVA was a registered charity attempting to gain recognition for nuclear veterans. They gave Clark support and urged him to fight for compensation.
Two years earlier, in 1989, the Official Secrets Act had been updated to allow veterans to speak about their experiences for the first time. Clark put his story into words, read by Stacy below:
Michael's picture of a camp on Christmas Island
Michael's picture of a camp on Christmas Island
Michael and a boy from Christmas Island
Michael and a boy from Christmas Island
A night of music on Christmas Island
A night of music on Christmas Island
Stacy Clark (Credit: Jack Prentice)
Stacy Clark (Credit: Jack Prentice)
Until then, she says, “none of us really understood the extent of what happened because it wasn't publicised”.
“The BNTVA were all about wanting compensation, but it wasn’t going to change Dad’s diagnosis if you gave him ten million pounds, that wasn’t what we wanted, we just wanted him", she adds.
Clark died in September 1992, aged 54, leaving Rose a widow at 50 years old. “Dad was such a huge part of our lives", Stacy says, “he was the patriarch of our family, we were three daddy’s girls and we adored him”.
Stacy’s sister was pregnant at the time of his death, giving birth to a boy - Harrison - shortly afterwards. Harrison was diagnosed with leukaemia, and died aged 8 in 2001. His brother, Lewis, had epilepsy. He died following a seizure last year at the age of 25.
Stacy has not had children. She contacted the Daily Mirror’s Susie Boniface - a champion of the nuclear veterans’ cause for over two decades - in 2007. This led to her participation in a legal case against the MoD, known as Rosenblatt’s case, a year later. This attempted to win veterans the right to bring their case against the government.
In court, Rose gave evidence to solicitors about her husband’s condition. She was cross-examined so fiercely, Stacy says, that she cried on the stand.
“It was horrifying. They were trying to belittle you, and make you feel that you don’t know what you’re saying and that you’re lying", she continues.
In 2009, the judge ruled that veterans had the right to their day in court. Three years later, the Supreme Court ruled that too much time had elapsed between health problems emerging and cases being brought against the MoD. By a verdict of four to three, the veterans’ case was thrown out.
Stacy later became involved with LABRATS and their campaign for a Nuclear Test Medal, which was granted in 2022. Whilst she appreciated the recognition it gave her father, she describes it as “just a piece of metal.”
“Dad has missed nearly every landmark in our lives. He never saw his grandchildren, and they never got to see him. It’s devastating. I miss my dad every single day. He did everything for me.
“I’d be really proud if there was an exhibition about my dad. We think that his life was cut very short due to the exposure, and for there to be some sort of acknowledgment would mean he will always be recorded somewhere. I don’t want him to have died in vain.”
LABRATS and the fight for justice
Whilst the nuclear veterans' fight for justice brings together thousands of people, Alan Owen - founder of LABRATS - shoulders much of the burden.
“The descendants are coming," Owen tells the room of MPs gathered before him. “We’re well-educated, and we work from within.”
Alan Owen at the Houses of Parliament (Credit: Jack Prentice)
Alan Owen at the Houses of Parliament (Credit: Jack Prentice)
His father, James Ronald Owen, was present at Operation Dominic, again on Christmas Island, to witness tests conducted by the US government in 1962. These tests employed around 700 British servicemen. One bomb, Bighorn, reached a magnitude of 7.7 megatons, or 7.7 million tons of TNT.
James watched 24 detonations in the space of 78 days. He rarely spoke about his experience, Owen says.
“Growing up my father didn't talk about it. We watched a programme on TV where they showed them with their backs to the bomb, and he said ‘that was me.’”
James died in 1994, aged 51, following a heart attack. His son, Alan’s brother Gordon, also suffered a heart attack and died 18 months later, aged 32. Alan’s sister Laura was born blind in her left eye. Alan suffered a cardiac arrest in 2022, and was clinically dead for 8 minutes before being revived by paramedics.
“I’m 55 this year. I died in 2022 when I had my cardiac arrest, the same as my father did. I pulled through and I made it, and he didn’t. To think that would've been the end is difficult to deal with. That was it for him and my brother.”
Owen suffers from hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a genetic condition that leads to a thickening of the heart muscles. He does not have the gene that causes this condition, leading Owen to speculate that his DNA was altered by his father’s participation in the tests.
He became involved in campaigning in 2012, following a chance meeting in a garden centre with a nuclear veteran, who was collecting money for the BNTVA. Owen told the veteran, a man named Doug Hearn, that his father had been on Christmas Island. Doug’s response: “‘He’s either ill or he’s dead.’”
Owen became chairman of the BNTVA in 2016, before forming LABRATS a year later. This campaign group encompassed people affected across the world, including indigenous people living in and around test sites, and was free of restrictions placed on charities around political campaigning.
Alan Owen and Brian Unthank wearing LABRATS' signature tie (Credit: Jack Prentice)
Alan Owen and Brian Unthank wearing LABRATS' signature tie (Credit: Jack Prentice)
“We call nuclear testing the longest-running scandal in UK history", he says, "the MoD have airbrushed the nuclear test veterans from history, and done a very good job of it. There are generations of children who know nothing about it.
“I think it's the biggest injustice that this country has had, and multiple governments have brushed it under the carpet, from different parties.”
Keir Starmer met LABRATS when in opposition, whilst Boris Johnson was the first sitting prime minister to meet with nuclear test veterans in 2022. Until a medal was granted that year, Owen says, the men who witnessed nuclear tests were not deemed by the government to meet the “risk or rigour” needed to qualify.
LABRATS are now calling for the release of medical records, allegedly held by the MoD, detailing blood and urine tests taken from soldiers following the tests. The recording of these tests had previously been denied, Owen says, but evidence uncovered in 2022 by the Daily Mirror, in an Atomic Weapons Establishment database, pointed to the existence of blood test results.
Owen explains that without these medical records, it is difficult for a veteran to prove in a War Pension claim that they were irradiated, and receive some kind of financial assistance.
“We are challenging what we call the ‘nuclear secrecy’ around archive material - using classification and threats to national security around nuclear testing to withhold information from the nuclear test veterans. Someone’s blood test is not a threat to national security", he adds.
Since Labour came into government in July 2024, defence secretary John Healey has ordered a full records review of material held by the MoD. This review took the entirety of 2025, with a report due soon, Owen says.
In September, the MoD began releasing tranches of records about its nuclear testing programme into a database in the National Archives. The Merlin database is thought to contain 28,000 previously unreleased documents, which will be analysed by LABRATS with help from the University of Liverpool.
"The MoD have airbrushed the nuclear test veterans from history, and done a very good job of it. There are generations of children who know nothing about it"
- Alan Owen -
Owen is optimistic the year ahead will bring answers about the location of blood and urine test results, and trusts Healey to do right by veterans and their families.
“John Healey’s a very busy man but he’s given us an awful lot of time. He personally feels that there's been an injustice and needs to get to the bottom of it.”
If the MoD’s report shows that blood and urine test records are missing, Owen would like Healey or the prime minister to stand up in Parliament and apologise, with veterans in the gallery.
Time is running out, he says, to get justice in their lifetimes. The average age of a nuclear veteran is 86. Owen tells the MPs that four veterans have died this year already, as well as two featured prominently in the documentary they were watching.
Sir John Hayes, a Conservative MP supportive of the campaign, felt ministers from both sides were increasingly giving nuclear veterans a hearing, highlighting recent positive meetings with Healey and Veterans Minister Louise Sandher-Jones.
He said: “What successive governments have failed to do is to accept that if you’re exposed to high levels of radiation your health will be affected and your descendants health will be affected.
“I feel, albeit it's been a struggle, that we are beginning to succeed and persuade people that these brave men, who did so much for their country, deserve in a word, justice.”
The MoD commissioned the Nuclear Weapons Test Participants Study in 1983, an independent investigation into the health of UK personnel present at the tests, with its most recent report published in 2017. This concurred with previous studies in stating nuclear veterans had “similar overall levels of aggregated mortality and cancer incidence”, compared to a control group of veterans who served elsewhere.
Owen believes ‘justice’ would require a separate study into the health of descendants, as well as an apology and compensation for nuclear veterans. He would like a memorial dedicated to the veterans in London.
He feels that if the nuclear veterans are successful then other groups, from the Gulf War and war in Afghanistan, may follow suit in taking action against the government.
An MoD spokesperson said: “We recognise the huge contribution that nuclear test veterans have made to national security.
“This government is committed to working with veterans and listening to their concerns. We have already amended the criteria for the commemorative Nuclear Test Medal to ensure those who took part in US atmospheric testing are also recognised.
“Ministers have commissioned officials to look seriously into unresolved questions regarding medical records as a priority, and this is now underway.
This work will be comprehensive, and it will enable us to better understand what information the Department holds in relation to the medical testing of Service personnel who took part in the UK nuclear weapons tests, ensuring that we can be assured that relevant information has been looked at thoroughly."
Still from Our Planet, The People, My Blood, which will be released later this year. Credit: Daniel Everitt-Lock
Still from Our Planet, The People, My Blood, which will be released later this year. Credit: Daniel Everitt-Lock
Towards the end of the documentary, Owen is given his father’s nuclear test medal by Unthank. The two men shake hands, and Unthank declares “we’re a team now”. They now await a meeting with the prime minister, promised to them in October, that is yet to take place.
Halfway through the screening, a bell rings. The MPs have been called away for a vote, and LABRATS pause the film waiting for them to come back. Some don't.
Yet again, nuclear veterans and their families have been left behind - with a story we all need to listen to.
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