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After I wrote my piece this past week about Dr. Herbert Clark from RPI passing away I realized that I had written a piece about this subject a bit more deeply 20 years ago. I had interviewed a man who was an "Atomic Vet," one of the thousands of our brave soldiers who became guinea pigs during the flurry of atomic tests that began in the 1940's. I am reproducing here again for those not associated with the subject and I will follow it up with an update on the issue in the near future. I published this piece in Hardcopy for the Common Good, a monthly social issues magazine I published in the 1980s. This article appeared in the December, 1989 issue - 20 years ago. What About the Atomic Vets? When Saratoga's John Delay was drafted into the army in 1956, at age 19, he thought his time would be spent like most post war GI's - perform his assigned duties and go back home. What he didn't know was that he would become a human guinea pig in a series of radiation experiments conducted by the U.S. Government. Many people have compared these experiments to the human atrocities of Germany and Japan during the second war.

Lawyers have charged £16million in the battle to get justice for Britain's nuclear test veterans. The money has been spent by legal teams for the UK Ministry of Defence and the veterans during a fiercely contested High Court action. It means the final bill could be much higher than any com-pensation eventually received. The revelation comes after a judge told both sides, who are meant to have been negotiating a settlement for the past six months, to start talks. Some 22,000 men, who were sent to Australia and the South Pacific to witness atomic bomb tests, allegedly suffered a range of health problems. Many of the 3,000 survivors have joined together in a major legal case to sue the MoD for negligence. But the case has descended into farce, with the MoD claiming a confidential offer has been made, but vets' lawyers saying they haven't received one. The High Court was told on Friday that costs are already at £15m for the three-year case, with a further £1m expected to pay for an appeal brought by the MoD which will be heard in May.

Lawyers have charged £16million in the battle to get justice for Britain's nuclear test veterans. The money has been spent by legal teams for the UK Ministry of Defence and the veterans during a fiercely contested High Court action. It means the final bill could be much higher than any com-pensation eventually received. The revelation comes after a judge told both sides, who are meant to have been negotiating a settlement for the past six months, to start talks. Some 22,000 men, who were sent to Australia and the South Pacific to witness atomic bomb tests, allegedly suffered a range of health problems. Many of the 3,000 survivors have joined together in a major legal case to sue the MoD for negligence. But the case has descended into farce, with the MoD claiming a confidential offer has been made, but vets' lawyers saying they haven't received one. The High Court was told on Friday that costs are already at £15m for the three-year case, with a further £1m expected to pay for an appeal brought by the MoD which will be heard in May.

As the Pentagon begins preparations to reduce the U.S. presence in Iraq, a push is under way to mobilize forces to help ailing veterans of our nation's last conflict there. A panel of scientists and veterans, established by Congress six years ago, recently presented a hefty report on an array of health troubles afflicting roughly one in four veterans of the 1991 Persian Gulf War.

Veterans of Britain's nuclear bomb tests have claimed a "massive breakthrough" in their fight for recognition. Survivors of the tests are hopeful of victory after a six-year campaign for justice by the Sunday Mirror. Vets met with MPs and Defence Minister Kevan Jones last week and were promised an announcement on new medical research soon. Children and grandchildren of the 20,000 servicemen ordered to watch nuclear explosions will be asked to take part in the first major scientific study of its kind.

As Europe mourns in Verdun today for those lost in "The War to End All Wars", World War I, we could look to another moment in European history to shed light on the most aggressively silenced story of the Bush administration. In late 2000 and January 2001, reports were exploding across Europe about the rise in cancer amongst NATO soldiers who had served in the "peacekeeping missions" in Bosnia and Kosovo. The effects of the depleted uranium in the U.S. and U.K. weapons could not be ignored.

"War » But sickened warriors searching for help will have to wait for science and government bureaucracy to link their conditions to their service. Emily Rainwater, a Defense Contract Management Agency employee, served two tours of duty in Iraq.... * « * 1 * 2 * 3 * 4 * » Related * Sickened by Service * Jan 15: * Officials just now recognizing Agent Orange exposures * Government waits for proof - sometimes for decades - before caring for sick veterans * Vets say toxic tests sickened them; government says prove it Editor's note: Second in a three-part series Combat had changed him. Yet Andrew Rounds was still the adoring son his mother had sent off to war. He was still the hard worker who had helped her deliver newspapers after school. He was still the amiable soul who knew the names of everyone in the tiny village of Waterloo, Ore., from the mayor to the man who lived under the narrow bridge that crosses the river on the east side of town. "

"Critics slam plan, regulators downplay risks The Bruce Nuclear Generating Station plans to ship 1,760 tonnes of radiation-laced steel through Lake Ontario - a precedent-setting project that has officials worried on both sides of the Canada-U.S. border. On April 1, Bruce Power asked the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, Canada's nuclear regulator, for a licence to ship low-level radioactive generators from its power plant on Lake Huron to Sweden, where 90 per cent of the metals inside the generators are to be cleansed and resold. The remaining materials that are too radioactive to be recycled will then return to the Bruce plant to be contained for the rest of their radioactive lives. But the planned journey, which would have 16 decommissioned steam generators travel through the Great Lakes, down the St. Lawrence River and then to Sweden this fall, has municipal officials concerned because they haven't been given the chance to vet the proposal. If approved, this would be the first time a licence has been issued by the commission to ship nuclear waste through the Great Lakes."

WHEN Jeff Liddiatt began suffering a range of health problems in his early 50s, his doctors were completely stumped. All of a sudden the seemingly fit and healthy former motor fitter began developing illnesses more common in much older men. It wasn't until Mr Liddiatt told his doctors that he had worked at Maralinga when the British Government was carrying out secret atomic tests in the 1950s that the penny dropped.

Informal communication among British veterans of the first Iraq war may have shaped the vets' characterization of Gulf War Syndrome. After the bullets stopped flying, the rumors took off among British veterans of the 1991 Gulf War. Early accounts of physical and emotional reactions to wartime experiences spread from one person to another through networks of veterans. Within a few years, these former soldiers had decided among themselves that many of them suffered from the controversial illness known as Gulf War Syndrome, a new study concludes.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has given its thumbs-up for Entergy Corp. to spin off its nuclear power plants, including the two at Indian Point in Buchanan, into a new and separate company. The federal Energy Regulatory Commission had already given its green light, so the NRC approval was anticipated. Fortunately, vetting of the major restructuring continues. Unanswered questions remain about the implications of the arrangement on state coffers, taxpayers and the future obligations of the plants. New York officials, including Assembly member Richard Brodsky, D-Greenburgh, are pressing for answers to those questions; required state approvals should be held in abeyance until clear answers are had.

Defence chiefs are trying to wriggle out of paying nuclear test veterans compensation - by claiming they are now TOO OLD to remember what happened.

The four members of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission have overruled a panel of the agency's administrative judges on several key issues raised by opponents of the Crow Butte uranium mine, including a challenge to the legality of licensing a foreign owned company to extract radioactive material in the U.S. * Related Articles * Most Popular * Middle school students protest to show teacher support * NRC says Crow Butte's foreign ownership not an issue * Park vandalism could lead to nighttime closure * Fairgrounds safe for horses, Alliance vet says * Dr. Harry Holmberg dies at age 92 * Middle school students protest to show teacher support (726) * Park vandalism could lead to nighttime closure (417) * Local construction company owner charged with thefts (279) * Suspect ID'd, auto seized in Chadron armed robbery (251) * Activist says assault charge shows racism (223) * Chadron residents among those stung by Medicare snafu (202) * Maintenance code boards appointed (187) Ads by Yahoo! Top Whole House Arsenic Removal System Whole house arsenic water filtter system. Free Ship. On Sale 30% Off. www.equinox-products.com Trace Arsenic Analysis and Speciation Fast TAT and competitive prices for trace Arsenic Analysis and Arsenic Speciation in various matrices. www.appliedspeciation.com Cheap Flights To Chadron Get Cheap Flight Deals To Chadron. Compare Airfare & SAVE. www.TripMama.com In its May 18 ruling on issues raised regarding renewal of the license for the Crow Butte In Situ Leach (ISL) mining operation near Crawford, the NRC also dismissed an argument that the mine releases low levels of arsenic into drinking water supplies, thereby contributing to increased diabetes and pancreatic cancer on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, some 30 miles away. The NRC called that argument "speculative' and based on a study that doesn't show the mine causes any arsenic contamination. "There is nothing in the Arsenic Study

Food irradiation is basically the process of passing radiation through food in order to sterilize it and make it safe for consumption. It has the ability to rid most foods of disease harboring microbes, such as E Coli. It has been touted as a miracle in many areas of the world where disease harboring microbes take hundreds of lives each year. But what happens when such a miracle becomes fatal... Irradiated food has been a controversial process in Australia for about a decade now, but it has recently come under the microscope and slapped a ban due to a rash of cat deaths. At first, the account of around 90 recorded illnesses at a vet clinic was nothing more than a mystery, but one veterinarian, Dr. Georgina Child, put two and two together.

"Presidential science adviser John Holdren found himself in some hotter-than-usual water today during a congressional hearing on the Administration's proposed 2011 research budget. Legislators from both sides of the aisle pressed Holdren to explain several recent Administration decisions that they felt had failed to take into account sound science. And their ire was fueled by Holdren's confession that a report on how to improve scientific integrity among federal agencies is almost 8 months overdue. In March of last year President Barack Obama directed Holden to develop guidelines "designed to guarantee scientific integrity throughout the executive branch." The exercise was a reaction to several celebrated incidents during the Bush Administration in which scientists had been muzzled, documents altered, and information withheld from the public. Due in July, the proposed guidelines are still being vetted by senior officials at several agencies. "

"Young men from the foothills were exposed to radiation in 1957, not knowing it would make them sick and impact the rest of their lives. Soldiers walk toward a mushroom cloud at a nuclear test site in Nevada in 1957. The 2007 film "Time Bombs" tells the story of 40 Canadian soldiers exposed to radiation during the nuclear testing in the United States. Fifty years later filmmakers in Quebec learned of the soldiers' struggles to find out why the Canadian military subjected them to nuclear testing and to gain financial compensation for their years of illness. The resulting film, called "Time Bombs" was released in 2007 and it will be shown for free at the Legion in Turner Valley on Monday."

"A NUCLEAR test veteran has described how he believes his battle for compensation from the Government may not be won in his lifetime. Former RAF serviceman Archie Ross, of Oak Close, Castle GresleyArchie Ross, of Oak Close, Castle Gresley, made the claim as an appeal by the Ministry of Defence, against a decision to allow compensation for more than 1,000 servicemen, continues. Mr Ross claims that exposure to radiation in 1950s nuclear tests, during his time as an RAF serviceman on Christmas Island, near Australia, has had a devastating effect on his health, his daughters and his grandson. But the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has rejected allegations of negligence and countered by saying that the claims for compensation are now out of date."