This is a guest post written by Roger Cross, Ph.D., a science educator and writer from Burra, Australia. He was professor of science education at LaTrobe University, Melbourne, Australia. He is a highly regarded and respected science educator and author of many books and research papers in the field of science education. Among his books, two are about his research into the British bomb tests in Australia.

Roger’s book Fallout[1] was the basis of the film Silent Storm produced by the National Film & Sound Archive of Australia. The film follows celebrated scientist Hedley Marston’s attempt to blow the whistle on radioactive fallout from the British atomic tests.

Beyond Belief: The British Bomb Tests: Australia’s Veterans Speak Out, co-authored by Avon Hudson, tells the stories of people who were directly involved in the British Bomb testing. They also expose how government and scientists secretly supported the British who were desperate to develop their “own” bomb. They report harrowing stories of how the bomb tests carried fallout around the country affecting unsuspecting citizens, as well as active service members. Many people affected by the bomb tests died of cancer and were in one sense guinea pigs for the British and Australian government.[2]

Roger is a close friend and colleague. He and I worked together on the Global Thinking Project while he was on sabbatical at Georgia State University in the 1990s. Roger asked several Australian schools to join the GTP. Teachers from these schools attended GTP Summer Institutes in Atlanta along with American, Czech Republic, Russian and Spanish teachers.

Life Defined by the Bomb

My name is Roger Cross (born 1941), I grew-up in the shadow of possible Nuclear War. I remember vividly, the little British Government booklet, informing us how to survive an ‘Atomic Explosion’ in London. My parents took the information very seriously and believed it. We were to cover windows with newspapers and to shelter in the bath! As a teenager, I learned about CND (Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament) and witnessed the greatest of all the rallies against nuclear weapons in Trafalgar Square, London. The philosopher, and mathematician Bertrand Russell was its early chair, and many prominent figures in British life joined the movement. CND became a household slogan – but to no avail.

After I moved to Adelaide, South Australia, in 1966, I was astonished to find that Australia too had played a part in the proliferation of nuclear weapons. The British were determined to build their own atomic bombs. When the USA and Canada refused to allow them to explode their bombs in their countries, they turned to Australia. At that time, the early 1950s, it must be said that we Australians were sycophantic when it came to our relations with Britain. The Government gave enthusiastic permission.

From 1952 – 1957, twelve atomic bombs were exploded on Australian soil, the majority at Maralinga in the far west of South Australia. I spent many years researching this terrible legacy and came to admire the only senior Australian scientist to oppose these tests. His name was Dr Hedley Marston, who worked for the Government’s scientific agency. Hedley found Iodine-131 and Strontium-90 contamination over large tracts of the continent. He did what he could to expose, what he called, the ‘Gangster Scientists’ of Great Britain. I presented a talk at a Hiroshima Day Conference and met a military veteran of the British bomb tests. We wrote about the ordinary service men who were exposed to ionizing radiation while working at the test sites. These are chilling stories.[3]

United States

Author Update.  The United States conducted 1,032 nuclear tests between 1945 and 1992: at the Nevada Test Site (NTSW), at sites in the Pacific Ocean, in Amchitka Island of the Alaska Peninsula, Colorado, Mississippi, and New Mexico. Fallout downwind contained radionuclides and gases transported thousands of miles away from NTS by wind. People living in the US during these years were exposed to varying levels of radiation. As in Australia, as Roger Cross reports, the American government released very little information warning people of potential effects of nuclear fallout. Fallout of radiation moved through the food chain causing cancerous diseases.

[1] Cross, R. (2001). Fallout: Hedley Marston and the British Bomb Tests in Australia. Wakefield Press, Mile End (Adelaide)

[2] American atomic and nuclear bomb testing was on a gigantic scale compared to what Cross and Hudson report about the British bomb testing. On each continent, atomic weapons affect millions of people who were near or in the path of nuclear fallout. In each case the Australian/British government and the American government failed to warn its citizens of effects of testing nuclear weapons in the atmosphere and underground. Underground testing was just as dangerous as exploding bombs in the air or at the surface.

[3] Cross, R., & Hudson, A. (2005). Beyond Belief: The British Bomb Tests: Australia’s veterans speak out. Wakefield Press, Kent Town (Adelaide)