Nearly one million pages of evidence about Britain’s Cold War radiation experiments involving its own troops will finally be made public as a minister has ordered their release
A minister has ordered the release of thousands of top secret documents about nuclear test veterans in a bid to answer questions over alleged human experiments on troops.
It comes two years after the Mirror first revealed the existence of blood and urine data taken from troops during the Cold War weapon trials and hidden from view as classified documents, while the survivors spent decades fighting for justice. Last month we reported that the true scale of the Nuked Blood Scandal was withheld even from ministers and Parliament, with hundreds more relevant documents that had not been revealed by officials when questions were asked.
Alan Owen of campaign group LABRATS said: “It is fantastic news this archive will be made public. We anticipate it will include around 750,000 pages of evidence. We continue to seek answers about why they were ever locked away in the first place, on whose orders and for what purpose.”
The Merlin database at the Atomic Weapons Establishment holds 28,000 files about the health of British and Commonwealth armed forces during Cold War weapon trials. They were classified as a potential terror threat, with ministers being asked to approve their being permanently withheld from public view.
A sample of 150 documents were forced open by Parliament last year, and produced a raft of evidence about blood and urine tests on men deliberately sent into fallout. There were orders for the work to be done, analysis of the results, and copies of medical forms. Similar monitoring was carried out on indigenous people and civilian workers at the tests.
There were also copies of internal MoD discussions about how the public would be told that “blood tests were considered” but the decision was that “no blood tests were necessary”. Withholding a medical record, or falsely classifying an official document, are potential criminal offences.
It was later discovered there were hundreds more files about the medical monitoring programme which had been kept back, even from senior members of government who were asking questions about them.
The scandal blew open in 2022 with the discovery of a memo between scientists about the “gross irregularity” found in blood tests of Group Captain Terry Gledhill, who led a squadron of ‘sniff planes’ through the mushroom clouds on sampling missions. His family fought a long battle to access his medical records, and found they were missing the blood tests and scientists’ discussion.
Hundreds of veterans and their families have since found gaps relating to the bomb tests in their medical records, and have joined a fresh legal fight against the Ministry of Defence demanding it produce the data, with final costs estimated to top £5bn.
Merlin was created in 2007 to hold historic documents relating to a mass legal claim for personal injury. Veterans’ lawyers were unable to access it, could submit only requests for keyword searches, and had to pass stringent security checks just to view the results.
Officials long denied any access to Merlin by anyone outside the AWE, and insisted it held no medical data. The partial release disproved that, with reams of information that should have been available to veterans and their doctors. Sources say “almost all” will now be thrown open to public scrutiny, with 24,000 files approved for release so far.
At the same time veterans – who have an average age of 86, most with multiple chronic health problems – are still awaiting the results of an internal review announced last November, a day after the BBC aired a documentary showcasing the Mirror’s evidence.
Veterans Minister Al Carns had asked for six months to find the answers, but campaigners have now been told there is no deadline for a conclusion and the review is “ongoing”. Despite requests in Parliament, Mr Carns has not provided details of the review’s budget, staffing, or precise scope. Nor has he explained how Merlin could so easily be declassified.
The Merlin files will be released “in tranches” after they have been cleared, but there is no estimate for when the first papers will be made available.