New Zealand Nuclear Test Veterans Association (NZNTVA) does not have a large veterans member base of the HMNZS Otago and Canterbury tours of Mururoa. Obviously establishing the health status of the Mururoa veterans is difficult. NZNTVA does however consider that the Mururoa test site would have the same basic dangers attached to it as every other nuclear test site internationally. As such over the years in dealing with the Grapple issues, NZNTVA has also acted in the interests of the Mururoa veterans also.

The NZNTVA research project is a good example. The Government grant and the further $78,000 NZNTVA raised through donations for the Clinical Assessment Programme at Massey University was only enough to do reserch on an absolute minimum of 50 veterans from one theatre. The obvious choice, due to age, amount of exposure, data held, contact addresses etc, were the Grapple veterans. Additionally it would not be scientifically possible, to have involved any Mururoa veterans, and have got a scientifically sound result. However, it must be obvious to anyone with an ounce of common sense, that the results from the Grapple veterans study, would have considerable relevance to the Mururoa veterans also, and other nuclear test veterans internationally. The recently released CAP "Psychological Impact Study" is an excellent example of that.

NZNTVA is aware that claims have been made of unnatural and substantial numbers of deaths and cancers and other illnesses amongst the Mururoa Veterans. The NZNTVA Chairman received a phone call from a NZ Herald reporter asking if we could substantiate the Mururoa Veterans Health problems. The reporter advised that he had contacted RIMPAC earlier and asked the same question to which he received a large multi page unintelligible response. We of course, could not assist him either.

At conference, and after the plaque dedication, we made an effort to establish from the Mururoa veterans if they were aware of any source that has reliable and documented data on the Mururoa veteran's health problems. No one did. Going from this response, and certainly RIMPAC's (The Chairman, Tony Cox is a Mururoa veteran) response to the NZ Hearld reporter, then there is no tangible recorded data that can be measured against the general population, or against the Mururoa cohort overall. Certainly without such information it is virtually impossible for any individual or group, to make a fully informed argument to Government or it's agencies.

If there is evidence of ill health amongst the Mururoa veterans out there, then those who are aware of it, should be documenting it and presenting it to Government and it's agencies, to ensure that the Mururoa veterans, and their families, are receiving the attention that they should.

NZNTVA is committed to looking after, as best it can, and within its means, nuclear test veterans and their families, irrespective of the veterans threatre of service. As previously stated, the majority of the projects and work that we are involved in, is also done with the Mururoa veterans in mind, and the flow on effect to the Mururoa Veterans' has, and is happening. They also benefit from our work. 

  The F421 HMNZS Canterbury Association website address is: www.hmnzscanterbury-bravehost.com

If you have served time in CANTERBURY and are interested in joining this association please get in contact with Jim Dell on This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

How true this is:

CIVVY FRIENDS: Get upset if you're too busy to talk to them for a week.

MILTARY FRIENDS: Are glad to see you after years, and will happily carry on the same conversation you were having last time you met...

CIVVY FRIENDS: Never ask for food.

MILITARY FRIENDS: Are the reason you have no food.

CIVVY FRIENDS: Call your parents Mr. and Mrs.

MILTARY FRIENDS: Call your parents Mum and Dad.

CIVVY FRIENDS: Bail you out of jail and tell you what you did was wrong.

MILITARY FRIENDS: Would be sitting next to you saying, "Bollocks.....we fu*ked Up....but that was fun!"

CIVVY FRIENDS: Borrow your stuff for a few days then give it back.

MILITARY FRIENDS: Keep your stuff so long they forget it's yours.

CIVVY FRIENDS: Know a few things about you.

MILITARY FRIENDS: Could write a book with quotes from you.

CIVVY FRIENDS: Will leave you behind if that's what the crowd is doing.

MILITARY FRIENDS: Will kick the whole crowds ass that left you.

CIVVY FRIENDS: Would knock on your door.

MILITARY FRIENDS: Walk right in and say, "I'm home!"

CIVVY FRIENDS: Are for a while.

MILITARY FRIENDS: Are for life.

CIVVY FRIENDS: Will take your drink away when they think you've had enough.

MILITARY FRIENDS: Will look at you stumbling all over the place and say, "Mate, you better drink the rest of that, you know we don't waste.. That's alcohol Abuse!!"

CIVVY FRIENDS: Will talk shit to the person who talks shit about you.

MILITARY FRIENDS: Will knock the shit out of them!!

Nuclear Test veteran Roy Sefton points to an image of a laboratory slide showing one of his cells about to devide. There are two nuclei as there should be, but clustered at the bottom are seven micronuclei, scientific evidence of a breakdown in his DNA. When he first saw that his DNA could not repair itself, Sefton said, "it frightened the hell out of me".

This cell in its dysfunctional state gives Sefton a scientific explanation for his chronic ill health. He hopes the Massey University research team led by Al Rowland will find sufficient evidence to prove New Zealand's nuclear test veterans suffered significant genetic damage from their exposure to nuclear radiation.

Sefton's voice breaks. "It's been a wasted life. What makes it difficult is to have battles with politicians who do not believe we have been exposed to radiation."

New Zealand leads the world in its analysis of genetic damage from historic nuclear exposure.

Five years ago. the NZ Nuclear Test Veterans Association commissioned Rowland, internationally recognised as one of the top 20 molecular geneticits in the world, to carry out research to see if exposure to radiation had caused genetic damage in the veterans.

Rowland was ambivalent. He did not think he would find any impact on the DNA, 50 years after exposure. "It was such a long time ago I thought it would be a bit like looking for a needle in a haystack," he says.

In his Palmerston North laboratory, Rowland and his team of six scientists are trying to discover if exposure to nuclear radiation can cause long-term genetic damage.

They are test blood cells taken from 50 New Zealand nuclear test veterans and a control group of 50 ex-military men to see if there is more genetic damage to the DNA in the chromosomes of the veterans than there is in the control group.

They are studying breaks in the DNA to see if genetic material from one chromosome has moved to another chromosome and attached itself there. This process, called translocation, can occur in the presence of radiation.

Rowland said genetic translocation could have a dramatic impact on health. "It can create a pre-cancerous state."