Read this book!
It is a brilliant and incisive analysis of the atomic testing by the UK in Australia in the 1950s and 1960s. I thought I knew about the atomic testing in the Australian outback; it dismayed and worried my parents at the time and their feelings were intensified by their helplessness and anger. But then it ended and I, childishly, thought it had gone away.
This book has demolished the ‘over and done with’ attitude that I had to the Atomic testing. It has filled me with anger. I was appalled to read of the poor safety considerations for the 25,000 personnel deployed over the years at a variety of testing sites. I was horrified by the negligence and the cruel disregard for the indigenous people. I am disgusted and distraught about the long term environmental results of the testing: radioactive dust that spread across the country and local poisoning of the environment by plutonium.
The only positive aspect of this book is the clarity of Elizabeth’s Tynan’s exposure of what can only be described as irresponsible and bad science. Yes, the UK did succeed in securing nuclear weapons but the testing was much more extensive than Australians were led to believe. The Vixen tests in particular were imprudent and poorly assessed and the follow up as to the effects of the nuclear tests was in form of silencing critics and disparaging the illnesses and suffering of affected people.
I applaud the way that this book puts in front of not only Australians but all citizens the importance of preventing the cosy, behind-the-scenes, short-term, blinkered, self-serving actions that in Maralinga have desecrated the environment for thousands of years. There was informed opinion, including Sir Mark Oliphant, who were highly critical of the manner of the nuclear testing but they were sidelined and kept ignorant of the extent and the danger of the manner of the nuclear tests. Menzies, Prime Minister, at the time, was complicit in this deception and the actions of the physicist in charge of the safety considerations were criminal.
This book is a clarion call to us all to put a stop to allowing decisions to be made by an elite in secrecy. We must take a long view, allow and incorporate critical expert opinion, assess activities properly and have the courage to say no. Due to the work of various persons to expose the shocking management of the testing at the time the UK has been obligated to contribute to some clean-up of Maralinga testing site in the 1980s and 1990s. But this is a classic example of shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted. We must have better assessments before we unleash a product. This is a timely book.
Read this book!
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