THE NUCLEAR GUINEA PIGS
- Invisible Enemy
- Sep 24, 2021
- 4 min read
Secret Human Radiation Experiments in Britain
The initial report was researched and written for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament by Eddie Goncalves.
Years after the US Government revealed that it had conducted an extensive programme of radiation experiments on human subjects, the report revealed that the British Government had been sponsoring its own secret human radiation experiments for over 30 years, some of them in conjunction with the American Government.
Introduction
The report documents the experimentation that was carried out by the British Government from documents released by the US Department of Energy. The British Government's atomic weapons establishment at Aldermaston and the Atomic Energy Research Establishment at Harwell have been involved in a number of experiments that began officially in the early 1960's - but some of which appear to have begun unofficially in the late 1950s. A large number of experiments were still going on in the late 1980s, and at least one is still going on today.
Documents released by the US Department of Energy which were obtained by CND show that British experiments involved a number of radioactive substances being:
INHALED, SWALLOWED OR EATEN
by human subjects. The substances involved include radioactive isotopes:
NIOBIUM-92M, BARIUM-133, PALLADIUM-103,
CHRONIUM-51 AND STRONTIUM-85.
Other experiments involved:
METHYL IODIDE (INCORPORATING IODINE-132), PLUTONIUM-239,
AMERICUM-241, STRONTIUM-86, CALCIUM-45 AND POSSIBLY TRITIUM.
Many of these experiments were carried out in collaboration with the Lawrence Livermore nuclear weapons research laboratory in the USA., as well as other US laboratories involved in the American Government's human radiation experiments programme.
The US Governments documents flatly contradict British denials made in February 1994 in a letter to a researcher on behalf of Aldermaston's Chief Executive. The atomic weapons research establishment chief claimed that Aldermaston had never been involved in human radiation experiments:
"No radiation tests involving human subjects are currently being conducted by AWE. Furthermore, we are not aware of any such tests or collaboration with the US on such tests since AWE (formerly AWRE) was formed in 1950. We have consulted the Ministry of Defence who are the custodian of much of our early history, and they have confirmed this"
However, a few months later - in June 1994 - the US Department of Energy began to publish a number of files, letters and reports covering US human radiation experiments between 1944 and 1974. They included a number that document the British Governments own programme of human radiation experiments, including those where Aldermaston was involved.
The only official response from the British Government to President Clinton's exhaustive inquiry into the secret history of human radiation experiments was a reply to a Parliamentary Question from one MP, when the Ministry of Defence was forced to admit:
"During the 1980s, atomic weapons establishments Aldermaston
participated in a number of studies involving the use of radioactive material"
What the MoD did not - or would not - say was just how many experiments were carried out or when. However, the CND report can reveal that British experiments involving human volunteers included:
- Between 1957 and 1987 injecting strontium-85 on a number of occasions into the same human subject
- in the 1960s, the inhalation of radioactive iodine isotopes
- from 1972 to 1976, three male British subjects inhaled palladium-103 ('mock' plutonium) and chromium-51
- From 1979 to 1985, 19 British men and women inhaled niobium-92m (another 'mock' plutonium)
- From 1986 to 1988, two British volunteers were injected with barium-133. One of the two was also injected with strontium-85.
- From 1988 to 1990 eight male British volunteers - including five who had previously inhaled niobium - took part in a repeat study.
On searching the Hansard archive, a debate was held in 1996 relating to this subject:
Conclusion
In the interests of open government, the British Government should have told Parliament of its own programme of human experiments at the same time as the American Government declared theirs. Instead, the British Government either lied directly about its programme or sought deliberately to mislead MPs.
Whilst some of the information contained in the CND report was acquired at the Public Record Office, the great majority - including minutes of recent Harwell meetings - has been downloaded from the US Department of Energy's website. The American inquiry into the secret history of human radiation experiments - set up personally by President Bill Clinton - concluded, in words that could ironically explain the British nuclear establishments own reticence, that:
"Important discussion of the policies to govern human experimentation
... took place in secret. Information about human experiments
was kept secret out of concern for embarrassment to the
government, potential legal liability, and worry that public
misunderstanding would jeopardise government programmes"
It appears that some experiments took place without any governing code of practice in force, Even when such a code was belatedly introduced, it amounted to little more than a license for self-regulation. The code explicitly sought to flout internationally agreed standards of safety governing genuine medical research and the treatment of patients and volunteers involving radioactive isotopes tracers.
The fact that even American scientists - whose own programme included examples of an outright infringement of human rights and appalling scientific irresponsibility - had such clear concerns about the necessity, legality, and safety of British experiments raises important questions about the health risks so-called 'volunteers' were subjected to.
The Clinton inquiry, as one of its key recommendations, issued a stern warning about the need to re-examine the whole question of ethics scientific research, and Sir Michael Atiyah made much the same point in his retiring speech as President of the Royal Society.
It is not just the lack of regulation, but the lack of morality at the heart of Britain's scientific community that is under scrutiny here.
This is just another example of the lies, deceit, and cover-up relating to the British Nuclear testing program and Aldermaston.
A copy of this report has been sent to the UK Government for comment.
Thank you to CND for the permission to re-publish this report in our campaign for Truth and Justice.
Read the full report here:
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