The mushroom cloud from a U.S. hydrogen bomb detonated in 1952 on the Marshall Islands in the western Pacific. Controversy has also surrounded adverse health effects and compensation here.

Credit: AFP/U.S. Department of Energy

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WELLINGTON: New Zealand sailors suffered significant genetic damage from British nuclear tests in the Pacific half a century ago, says a new study.

A total of 551 sailors from the country's navy witnessed nine British nuclear tests in 1957 and 1958 from ships as close as 80 km away. The tests took place on Christmas and Malden Islands, in what is now the island nation of Kiribati, and cemented the U.K.'s status as a thermonuclear power.

The veterans have long complained of health problems, including various types of cancer.

Radiation exposure

Now researchers led by geneticist Al Rowland at Massey University in Palmerston North on New Zealand's North Island, have detected genetic damage linked to the radiation exposure.

His team tested 50 seamen involved in the U.K.'s Operation Grapple nuclear tests and found exceptionally high numbers of what they call "rogue cells."

A significant level of genetic damage was found in these cells in a series of five tests looking at factors such as the amount of translocation in chromosomes, the efficiency of DNA repairs, and the overall level of DNA degradation.

"The results are indicative of the veterans having incurred long term genetic damage as a consequence of performing their duties relating to Operation Grapple," wrote the researchers.

They suggest that further analysis be carried out on British and Fijian military servicemen involved in the nuclear tests.

"Extraordinary"

New Zealand Nuclear Test Veterans Association chairman Roy Sefton said many of those exposed to the blasts suffered chronic health problems and some died prematurely. Some of the veterans' children have also suffered, he said.

"We are at the end of our lives and we won't be here much longer. What we want is for our children to be tested to work out what damage has been passed on," said Sefton. "We had been pushing for a long, long time for some recognition of our concerns from the government that we had been irradiated."

New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark said the government had helped fund the research and military pensions would cover any health costs for the veterans. "By today's standards it seems extraordinary that people were ordered to stand on the deck of a ship and witness a nuclear test," she said at a press conference.

Related research from Rowland's team, also announced this week, has shown genetic damage in Vietnam War veterans exposed to the the Agent Orange defoliant.