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NUCLEAR TEST MEDAL

Frank Rands
Close up view of a veterans nuclear test medal 01102023 CREDIT BFBS
A close-up view of a Nuclear Test Veteran’s Medal.

Nuclear test veterans are finally receiving a medal to recognise their service after a more than 70-year wait. 

The Nuclear Test Medal has begun being issued to veterans, starting with the oldest, who participated in the UK’s Nuclear Test Programme between 1952 and 1967.

The first veterans to receive the medal wore it for the first time in public at a service at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire to mark National Atomic Veterans Awareness Day. 

More than 22,000 British servicemen are believed to have taken part in the British and US nuclear tests and clean-ups, along with scientists from the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment.

Veterans and campaigners have spent decades seeking recognition for their service during Britain’s nuclear test programme. 

The Government says many of those who participated will receive a new medal in time for Remembrance Sunday 2023 on 12 November.

Watch: In a special report, Forces News speaks to veterans who took part in Britain’s early Cold War nuclear testing.

The medal’s design features an atom surrounded by olive branches, with the words ‘Nuclear Test Medal’, and bears an image of His Majesty King Charles III on the reverse.

The medal’s ribbon colours are white, yellow, black and red, including a lighter blue for the sky and ocean to represent the Pacific – the region where the tests were conducted.

The Montebello Islands, Christmas Island, Malden Island and Maralinga & Emu Field, South Australia, were where the nuclear tests were carried out.

The most notorious was Operation Grapple Y in 1958, which was more than 100 times more powerful than the bombs that levelled Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Nuclear Test Medal veteran National Memorial Arboretum 011023 CREDIT BFBS
A nuclear test veteran displays his medal at the National Memorial Arboretum.

The service personnel who experienced such testing developed numerous health problems, as have some of their descendants.

Former Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said: “Nuclear test veterans have made an invaluable contribution to the safety and security of the UK and it’s right that we recognise and value their enduring service to our nation.”

Veterans, civilian staff and next of kin can apply for a medal free of charge and it will also be awarded posthumously.

Full eligibility to receive a Nuclear Test Medal can be found here.

Applications for the medal can be submitted by completing the Ministry of Defence medal form.