'Time for justice' for veterans of nuclear testing

SON HITS OUT AS HE'S GIVEN DAD'S POSTHUMOUS MEDAL

- ANDY PHILLIPS

THE son of a nuclear test veteran has received a medal posthumously awarded to his father - but said the Government must still admit knowledge of risks to thousands of personnel subjected to nuclear fallout.

Michael Burt's father Douglas was a Commissioned Gunner serving on HMS Diana when she was ordered to steam through radioactive fallout from the testing of nuclear weapons off Western Australia in 1956.

The dangers faced by the Devonport-based destroyer saw her dubbed the 'ship of doom' by the national press in a campaign to recognise Navy personnel who took part in the tests, which were codenamed Operation Mosaic.

Crews on the Daring class ship were twice forced to sail through fallout from atomic bomb testing off the Montebello Islands an archipelago off Western Australia - in May and June 1956.

While nuclear test were veterans finally acknowledged with a medal in November 2022, the Ministry of Defence has always insisted the trials were with planned 'me us' care and that there is no evidence of 'excess illness' among those involved.

ST VINCES However, Mr Burt Snr died of leukaemia cancer of the blood - in 2009, at the age of 86. His death certificate states that he died of 'natural causes, which his son refutes.

Other investigative reports into the operation point to members of the crew who have died of cancer at an early age, while others had children with birth defects or were unable to have children altogether.

A legal case was launched on behalf of all nuclear test veterans prior to Mr Burt's death - which he supported and provided evidence towards, although did not formally join as he was unwell at the time.