Nuclear Testing

Posted: 17th April 2026

“The Ministry of Defence has always maintained that it never rained,”
said Ken McGinley, founder of the British Nuclear Test Veterans Association
(BNTVA). “I’m sorry, you’re liars … I was there!” McGinley, who was a
royal engineer, gave this interview in January 2024, shortly before his
death, as part of our Oral History of British Nuclear Test Veterans
project. McGinley was present during the Grapple nuclear weapons test
series, conducted by the UK on the central Pacific island of Kiritimati
(also known as Christmas Island) in the late 1950s. At the time, this
remote atoll was inhabited by 250 villagers as well as thousands of British
servicemen. For decades, many of those present during this and other
above-ground British nuclear weapons tests have argued they were harmed by
radioactive fallout. McGinley founded the BNTVA in 1983 to “gain
recognition and restitution” for the veterans who took part in British
and American nuclear tests and clean-ups between 1952 and 1965.

The Conversation 15th April 2026

https://theconversation.com/what-secret-report-reveals-about-british-nuclear-weapons-tests-veterans-claimed-they-were-harmed-by-the-fallout-280189