Veterans to see Nuked Blood evidence at last, but it will take 4 years to read

'Lab rat' veterans used in government radiation experiments have been told they can finally see hidden documents about the programme - but it will take more than four YEARS to read them all.

A about troops used in nuclear weapons tests is set to be declassified, but it is so vast that campaigners fear almost every veteran will be dead by the time it has been read.

Alan Owen of campaign group LABRATS said: "The average age of our veterans is now 86 and we hear of another one dying without justice almost every week. To tell those men they can only get the answers they've waited seven decades for it they manage to hang on a bit longer is morally abhorrent.

"The government knows what's in those files: the Prime Minister should simply admit it to Parliament."

The database, codenamed Merlin, was created in 2007 to hold records and widows. After the case failed, it was classified on the grounds it held information that it could proliferate nuclear weapons and aid terrorists.

In 2023 the exposed that in fact that it included documents about a long-denied mass blood testing programme on troops. Such biological monitoring could provide the first irrefutable evidence of what amounts to human experiments - showing whether radiation entered the men's bodies, while scientists took note of the effects.

Many veterans have are missing from their medical records, and the misuse of security classifications is now the subject of a criminal allegations to police about misconduct in public office by staff of the MoD and AWE.

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A handful of the Merlin files were released last year and featured in a documentary about the Nuked Blood scandal. officials have now confirmed to campaigners the entire database will be published, for free, and made available online.

But the 28,000 files are estimated to include more than 700,000 pages. If veterans were able to review 500 pages a day, it would still take 1,465 days, or more than 4 years, to get through them all.

Oli Troen of law firm McCue Jury which is helping veterans to sue the MoD said: "It is no surprise that, when the MoD finally releases the evidence it has kept under lock and key until now, it tells them to figure it out for themselves.

"The MoD knows damn well what's in those files, and how important they are to the veterans and their families. The Prime Minister and Defence Secretary must treat these heroes with more respect and engage with them properly, not least to avoid what will otherwise be a costly and protracted legal battle that will shame this government."

The lawsuit, which is expected to be issued soon, seeks to force the MoD to produce the results of the monitoring programme. The Merlin records are expected to be made available via the National Archives at Kew, but there is no timeframe for them to go online.

A spokesman for the archive confirmed the records would be free to access and available for digital download, but they had not yet been provided by the MoD.

The MoD was approached for comment.