The Nuclear History database on this website arose from material originally compiled in connection with a four nation Nuclear History Programme. The PRO list database which follows reflects an extensive survey of the holdings of the Public Record Office relating to nuclear history which was last updated in 1998. Entries are mainly direct citations of Public Record Office handlists, lightly edited from time to time, for example to include explanations of abbreviations.
In undertaking the survey, a broad view of what would be of value to nuclear historians was taken and files included cover the civil use of nuclear technology, the security of raw material and the impact of nuclear weapons on foreign and domestic policy. Full listings of records in the classes of most relevance have been included. For other series, selected file descriptions only have been included. Some of these files are closed due to sensitivity or retained for the time being by the government department which created them. Closures and retentions have been marked when appropriate, but it should be noted that this listing will inevitably become out of date in time and reference should be made to the on line catalogue at the Public Record Office for the most up to date information.
Other elements of the Nuclear History Programme which have been published on the Centre's website are a guide to sources of nuclear history in the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives itself, the Nuclear History research guide, and a detailed catalogue to the papers of AVM Stewart William Blackner Menaul (1915-1987). The latter includes descriptions of the rich collection of mainly secondary research resources compiled by Menaul from the end of the Second World War to his death in 1987.
The Centre also houses research results compiled in connection with the Programme, the archives of the television documentary The Nuclear Age, a series of twelve television programmes on the history of nuclear weaponry and strategy made jointly by Central Independent Television plc and WGBH Boston in 1989, as well as microfilm of mainly American official sources on defence policy including the records of the National Security Countil, 1947-1988 and a special collection on 'Nuclear Weapons, arms control and the threat of thermonuclear war, 1965-1995'. The materials are described in hard copy form in the reading room. Summary guides to all holdings will be available on the web before the end of 1999.
The Trustees of the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives are grateful to the Public Record Office for permission to make its lists available on this site.