New Zealand servicemen who witnessed nuclear tests while aboard two Navy frigates near Mururoa atoll in French Polynesia in 1973 say a disproportionate number of health issues among them must be due to radiation.
The Labour Government at the time sent HMNZS Otago and HMNZS Canterbury to the atoll as a protest against French nuclear testing in the Pacific.
A number of surviving veterans attended a 40th anniversary reunion in Tauranga on Saturday.
Of the 500 men who served on the two ships, the Mururoa Veterans Society says 180 are now dead and a number are sick. President Peter Mitchell says the veterans want their DNA checked so it can be compared with 500 former sailors of the same age who did not go to Mururoa.
He says while some measures were taken to protect the crew at the time, mistakes were made and radiation was picked up from seawater. "We were sucking in 25 tonne per 24 hours of this water," he says. "Twenty-four tonne of it went into the boilers; the other tonne was given to us to bathe in, to cook in, to drink, shower in."
Mr Mitchell says the veterans' concerns appear to be being ignored. However, Veterans Affairs Minister Michael Woodhouse says 79 of them get a war disablement pension, and he expects the number to rise. He says the threshold for getting a war pension is very moderate and errs on the side of the veteran if there is doubt about their illness relating to service.
Mr Woodhouse says he wants to ensure all servicemen who went to Mururoa are aware of their entitlements.