Book description
The full story of Britain's nuclear weapons tests in the 1950s has only
recently begun to emerge. Here, for the first time, through interviews
and eye-witness accounts from men who watched the mushroom clouds drift
over Australia and the Pacific Ocean, the tests are vividly recreated.
Using official documents recently made public, evidence gathered by the
Australian government's Royal Commission of Inquiry into the tests, and
her own experience as an investigative journalist, Joan Smith argues
forcefully that the bomb tests are far from being a historical anecdote.
They remain with us in the shape of the victims - servicemen, civilians
and aborigines who witnessed them - and through Britain's continuing
programme of nuclear weapons tests in the United States. In this
disturbing and horrific book, Joan Smith raises crucial questions about
the British government's responsibility to the people who took part in
the tests - and shows how their effects may yet have a devastating
impact on Britain's nuclear industry. The full story of Britain's
nuclear weapons tests in the 1950s has only recently begun to emerge.
Here, for the first time, through interviews and eye-witness accounts
from men who watched the mushroom clouds drift over Australia and the
Pacific Ocean, the tests are vividly recreated. Using official documents
recently made public, evidence gathered by the Australian government's
Royal Commission of Inquiry into the tests, and her own experience as an
investigative journalist, Joan Smith argues forcefully that the bomb
tests are far from being a historical anecdote. They remain with us in
the shape of the victims - servicemen, civilians and aborigines who
witnessed them - and through Britain's continuing programme of nuclear
weapons tests in the United States. In this disturbing and horrific
book, Joan Smith raises crucial questions about the British government's
responsibility to the people who took part in the tests - and shows how
their effects may yet have a devastating impact on Britain's nuclear
industry.
