Thule affair
Thule affair
There were American nuclear weapons in Greenland during the cold war according to a secret agreement with the Danish government.
In 1968, an American B-52 bomber crashed at the Thule air base in Greenland. There were nuclear bombs on the aircraft, which gave rise to radioactive contamination of the workers at the military base. As Denmark and Greenland officially had no nuclear weapons, the information was withheld from the employees.
The Thule workers were exposed to nuclear radiation, and many have died of cancer.
They approached the Committee on Petitions of the European Parliament in order to put pressure on the Danish Government to accept the requirements of the Euratom Treaty on annual health checks.
The European Parliament criticised Denmark in a letter sent on 14 December 2004. The affair was concluded with the Wallis report criticising the Danish government. The Danish government did not react to the report.
