Inside Porton Down: Britain's Secret Weapons Research Facility


Inside Porton Down: Britain's Secret Weapons Research Facility

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This programme contains scenes which viewers may find upsetting.

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This is CS gas.

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It's designed to hurt, not kill.

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It's one of the few chemical weapons I can be exposed to and survive.

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When you are happy, take your mask off and remove your respirator.

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-Open your eyes.

-OK.

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OK, what's your name?

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Michael... Oh, God! Ah!

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COUGHING AND SPLUTTERING

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Jesus!

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COUGHING

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GASPING

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Don't rub your eyes, Michael, you will make it worse.

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How, really...?

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Oh, Jesus!

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I generally thought it was going to be quite mild, but it's...

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I can see why they use it in those situations.

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You cannot...

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..stay there.

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CS gas is one of the many chemical weapons developed

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at Britain's top-secret military research base,

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which this year celebrates its 100th anniversary.

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We've been given unprecedented access to Porton Down

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and to research being done in secure laboratories.

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Biological and chemical weapons.

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There's enough there to kill hundreds of thousands of people.

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Their impact is unbounded.

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This is research that is aimed at protecting British military,

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but also civilians, from terrorist attack.

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But Porton Down also have their dark secrets.

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The only thought that the government had was let's hush it up.

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It's about keeping this nation safe

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and some of that we need to keep secret

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to make sure we stay ahead of the people who would do us harm.

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This is the most secret, controversial

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and misunderstood scientific and military institution in the UK.

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CAR RADIO: "Porton Down has long been the home to the most sensitive

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"work in defence, but now it's being prepared to..."

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I'm Dr Michael Mosley and I've seen close-up

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what happens to soldiers and civilians on the front line,

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which is why I'm particularly fascinated by Porton Down,

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also known as the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory,

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where so much secret British military research takes place.

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I'm actually getting a little tingle of excitement

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at the thought of going in.

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Porton Down has been described as the most secret place in Britain.

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It is, therefore, a huge privilege and thrill, I have to say,

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being allowed into it.

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I'll be very curious to see what they actually show us

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and, to some extent, what they don't show us.

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-Pass. Thanks.

-Thank you very much.

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-Hi there.

-Hi, Michael.

-Hello.

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-Nice to see you.

-Nice to meet you.

-Thank you.

-Let me show you around.

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Many people may have heard of Porton Down,

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but many more will have no idea what really goes on in here.

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I'm certainly hoping to find out.

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Hello.

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Right. Magical mystery tour.

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Let's go.

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Do you do many guided tours for journalists?

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Not for journalists.

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It does have quite a reputation as a site.

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In what way?

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Historically, there's so many aliens

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and so many everything else that's supposed to be here.

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So, what have we got? We've got... what on my left?

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Well, the large white building you've got there

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is the first permanent building that was ever built on the site

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-and that was built in 1918 by the Royal Engineers.

-OK.

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So what is the blue building over there?

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Our current headquarters.

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It seems to have quite a lot of security outside, doesn't it?

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A lot of police, a lot of physical security

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and a lot of electronic security.

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Has there ever been a breach?

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Not into any of the sensitive areas that we have.

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Security is very tight

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and has affected the way we make this film.

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What's that sort of industrial thing over there?

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Sorry, I can't give you any details on that.

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We can't show many buildings.

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We can't fully identify the staff

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or even reveal their exact roles.

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There's one quite strange looking building over there.

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That one stands out.

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That's one of the buildings that we don't discuss.

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And in looking at it, you have no idea what is going on inside them.

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Well, that's the idea.

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There are plenty of forms of technology

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-that are looking at this site.

-Suitably anonymous.

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Some of it is a strange old mixture of slightly dilapidated-looking

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stuff over there and brand-new-looking stuff over there.

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The site permanently evolves

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because the threat to the UK,

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to defence, is permanently evolving.

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Today, the military needs to respond

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to a barrage of new and unfamiliar threats -

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rogue nations,

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terrorists,

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asymmetric warfare.

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The man running Porton Down is Jonathan Lyle.

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He is the only member of staff we can fully identify.

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He manages 3,000 scientists

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and their £0.5 billion annual budget.

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And it's really important that we anticipate future technologies,

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making sure that we are ahead of the game

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in terms of scientific advances

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that could give our armed forces an advantage.

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And, you know, we were formed 100 years ago this year

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to respond to the threat of chemical weapons

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that had emerged in the First World War

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and I'm very proud of 100 years of doing that here today.

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Spring, 1915.

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A year into the war

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the Germans used a new weapon,

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a chemical weapon,

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chlorine gas.

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With no idea what it was,

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the soldiers inhaled the deadly cloud.

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It reacted with water in their lungs, producing hydrochloric acid.

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The burns caused suffocation and death.

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In that first attack, over 800 died.

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A new terror spread across the Western Front.

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Britain's Secretary of State for War, Lord Kitchener,

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demanded an immediate response.

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The result was a new laboratory,

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away from prying eyes,

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in the heart of rural England.

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They called it the War Department Experimental Ground.

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Porton.

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It rapidly became like a mini town.

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There were carpenters, plumbers, even a blacksmith.

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Over there, there were some chemical laboratories

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and over there were huts where they stored animals for experiments.

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And this, the HQ, was the first permanent building.

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The Germans had come up with this new, very potent weapon,

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so there was a real pressure on Porton

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to get to grips with what exactly this new weapon was,

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how it worked,

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how it could be used as a weapon and how they could defend against it.

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Porton Down's priority was to develop their own chemical weapons

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to retaliate.

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From the moment Britain is developing a chemical warfare

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capability you see officials stating that they only can

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get an understanding of defensive operation

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by doing, actually, also offensive research.

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They tested the new weapons in their own back yard,

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a 7,000-acre firing range.

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Down there in the bowl they would have had canisters

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full of poison gas and they would be released either by a timer or

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perhaps by somebody sort of opening it up.

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They also filled shells with poison gas and fired them

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from Battery Hill over there,

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up that way towards the target.

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Now, many of those shells actually failed to explode,

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which means that the hills around here are riddled with shells

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which still contain active agent.

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Part of that legacy lies behind these gates

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at a classified location within Porton Down's range.

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Thousands of unexploded chemical weapons.

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Some are from Porton.

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Some were collected from other old firing ranges.

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Mark is responsible for destroying these shells.

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Wow. These things look... Wow.

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This is our main storage area here

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and these contain a chemical called stannic chloride.

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OK. Blimey.

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-Go in here.

-And what would these contain?

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-They would contain either phosgene or mustard.

-Really?

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-You see, the most common gas we get is mustard gas.

-Yeah.

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And second to that is bromobenzyl cyanide.

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Those are the two most common ones, but we also have gases

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such as chlorine, phosgene and hydrogen cyanide.

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Many of these chemicals kill by interfering with

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the uptake of oxygen in the lungs or in the blood.

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Many are still as deadly as the day they were made.

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Just to show you stuff that has come in recently.

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-So this is stuff that we've recovered from a beach.

-Blimey.

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-They are former chemical shells.

-All of this came from a beach?

-Yes.

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-Can you tell me where?

-I can't.

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Right. OK. I kind of suspected you might say that.

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And what would that contain?

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Those, mustard or bromobenzyl cyanide.

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Right.

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All of them are extremely poisonous

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and this is the only place in the UK licensed to destroy this stuff.

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I'm going to follow one shell on its journey to destruction.

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They begin by using powerful X-rays to look inside.

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SIREN BEEPS

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We can clearly see the liquid level here. So this is the liquid level.

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The reason we do it at an angle

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is so we can depict that it is a liquid level

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-cos if we did it upright you couldn't tell whether it's a solid or a liquid.

-Right.

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Next, they need to identify exactly what is in the shell

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using a neutron beam.

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Chemical weapons each have their own unique atomic signature.

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This is the neutron activation analysis result.

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As we can see on here, we've got the various elements that come up

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and that's high confidence that those elements are present

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-within the shell.

-Right.

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So that immediately tells us that we have mustard gas in it.

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Mustard gas is one of the most infamous chemical agents of all time.

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This shell will now continue its journey to destruction.

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To find out more about mustard gas

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I'm going to a part of Porton Down

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where cameras have never been before.

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Now, this is very unusual

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because we are in a high security part of Porton Down,

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which is where they make some of the CWAs,

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the chemical warfare agents.

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In fact, we're about to see it happen.

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Only a small handful of scientists are allowed to make them

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and only then for specific research purposes.

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Marcus is one of them.

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Hello. I'd better not... Do I shake your hand?

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-Hi, there.

-Nice to meet you.

-Welcome to two-five.

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Hi, there.

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Right. A big skull and crossbones on that one.

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That's right, yeah, we keep them in these,

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what we call toxic carriers

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and inside we've got the mustard itself.

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"Those who've inhaled it describe it as smelling like mustard or garlic."

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It's frozen, look.

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So, at 14 degrees it freezes and just becomes like ice.

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And that's what it looks like.

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So it was one of the real things that people feared.

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Again, the First World War, presumably now,

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since it's still being used,

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and was that because it kind of hung around for a long time?

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Yeah, it's one of the more persistent of the agents

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but it's more because, you know, you get it on your skin

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and it slowly sort of works its way in

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and then gives you these huge debilitating blisters.

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Incredibly painful, but it doesn't kill you.

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Unless we get it right down into your lungs

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you are likely to survive if you get mustard on your skin, yeah.

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But just horrifically painful?

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Horrifically painful, big blisters, no real treatment for these things.

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Now, this is an atlas of gas poisoning

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and it was distributed by the British government to doctors

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on the front line to let them know just what they were facing.

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These images paint a shocking picture

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of the horror of mustard gas.

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He actually was very unlucky because he just sat on ground

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which had been contaminated by poison gas

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and it managed to seep through his clothing

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and onto his buttocks,

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and you can see, here, they are all red, they are blistered.

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This must have been incredibly painful but he made a full recovery.

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There's a painting here, gangrene of the foot.

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This is caused by chlorine poisoning

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and this guy actually survived,

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but a couple of his toes went black, shrivelled and had to be removed.

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And finally, we have another picture here,

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and it's obviously postmortem,

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and it shows his trachea,

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and you can see it's horrible, it's red,

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it's inflamed and it's just full of pus.

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And this guy almost certainly sort of drowned in his own...

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Yeah.

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A terrible, terrible way to go.

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"If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood

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"Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,

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"Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud

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"Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,

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"My friend, you would not tell with such high zest

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"To children ardent for some desperate glory,

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"The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est

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"Pro patria mori."

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In response to the deadly gas attacks

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and the fear they created,

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Porton Down's scientists began developing masks

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to protect the troops.

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So this is where it all begins, is it?

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'Colin manages today's respirator technology,

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'which has come a long way from the Black Veil.'

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It doesn't look very effective. What would this have been impregnated with?

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That would have been impregnated with sodium thiosulphate,

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washing soda or sodium carbonate and glycerin.

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So that would've reacted chemically with the chlorine.

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And would that have worked at all?

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It would have been better than nothing.

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It would probably provide some sort of escape capability

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to the wearer, but... So that was the very first response.

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And this one is obviously pretty early as well.

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Yeah, this was round about 1916.

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There were various variants of the hood-type respirator.

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Again, it is a fabric impregnated with chemical.

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Would this have protected you against chlorine?

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It would have provided protection against chlorine

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and this particular version would have provided protection against phosgene as well.

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What sort of period is this?

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This is probably about 1916, 1917.

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This is the light-type respirator.

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Now you are starting to see something that resembles

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a respirator of today.

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It's got a rudimentary face piece, but importantly now,

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we have an activated carbon filter.

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-This black stuff here?

-Yeah.

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The absorptive properties of activated carbon

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have been known for millennia.

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So by this point you've got something which is really quite good.

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Yeah. It's a far cry from the first response.

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-Gas, gas, gas.

-Gas, gas, gas.

-Gas, gas, gas.

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Because of the very real threat of being attacked by chemical agents,

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modern soldiers are still trained in how to respond.

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This is the latest in a long line of gas mask technology.

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It is the general service respirator,

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the GSR.

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At Porton Down, we are putting it through its paces.

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All this testing equipment is designed to find out

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if the mask leaks.

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How heavy is this one?

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It's about 12 kilos.

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Not that heavy by soldier standards.

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OK.

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This mist looks really nasty,

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but it is actually a harmless oil-based aerosol.

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My exercises are designed to reflect real battlefield movements -

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crawling,

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running,

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digging.

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Sensors monitor the quality of the air I am breathing

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because in a real chemical attack

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even the slightest leak could be fatal.

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Thanks. Phew.

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Bits coming off. Right. Ooh, God.

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That was quite close to phobia, I must admit.

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And it's also very weird being in there with all that,

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sort of, smoke and particles, but I guess the next thing to do is

0:18:430:18:47

find out whether this thing actually protected me. So, how did I do?

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-Well, as expected, Michael, you got excellent results.

-OK.

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You can see very, very low levels of ingress within the respirator.

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Reassuring, I guess, that it worked.

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And under real conditions you can see you've got excellent results.

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Because there's one thing putting it on in the lab-type situation

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-and there's another, kind of, actually running around with it.

-That's right.

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Back in the classified area within Porton's range,

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the shell containing mustard is ready to be destroyed.

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They are now in a sealed chamber, effectively a large lab there,

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and the shell has been deep frozen so the agent inside it,

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the chemical agent, is now definitely solid

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and in a moment they're going to take it over there

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and they're going to chop it in half,

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separating out the explosive bit from the chemical agent bit.

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There it goes.

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Opening the shell demands great care and precision.

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Cutting too high could detonate it.

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Once the saw is set, the team is evacuated

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to 100 metres away.

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-So this is all remote controlled.

-Yes, a remote controlled bandsaw.

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And our aim is to separate the explosive component with the agent.

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Cutting...

0:20:250:20:28

Now.

0:20:280:20:29

-I can see the steam coming off now.

-That's the agent...

-Right, OK.

0:20:400:20:43

So that is actually mustard gas, mustard liquid, coming out, is it?

0:20:430:20:49

You can actually see the agent itself around the roller bearings.

0:20:490:20:52

-There's a nice pool.

-You wouldn't want to be in that room.

-No.

0:20:520:20:57

Will it sort of evaporate off, or just hang around there?

0:20:570:21:00

-No, it'll hang around there for a considerable amount of time.

-OK.

0:21:000:21:04

We're nearly through now.

0:21:070:21:09

There you go. It's stopped.

0:21:090:21:12

Power off.

0:21:120:21:13

Just to confirm, four miles...

0:21:210:21:25

Roger.

0:21:250:21:27

The mustard is still highly toxic,

0:21:270:21:29

poisoning the air inside the laboratory.

0:21:290:21:31

With the detonator removed,

0:21:330:21:34

the mustard gas can finally be destroyed.

0:21:340:21:37

It's incinerated at over 800 degrees for 24 hours.

0:21:390:21:44

This is painfully slow work and there are thousands

0:21:480:21:52

of unexploded shells waiting to be destroyed.

0:21:520:21:56

And more being found every year.

0:21:560:21:58

Removing the legacy of Britain's chemical weapons could take

0:21:590:22:03

a generation.

0:22:030:22:05

In 1925, the major world powers signed the Geneva Protocol,

0:22:100:22:15

which banned the use of chemical weapons in warfare.

0:22:150:22:19

But surprisingly, it didn't ban their development.

0:22:190:22:22

During the Second World War, the British military became

0:22:250:22:29

convinced that Hitler was about to renege on the Geneva Protocol

0:22:290:22:34

and unleash chemical weapons.

0:22:340:22:36

To keep ahead, in 1942, Porton Down started their own secret project

0:22:380:22:45

to produce a completely different type of weapon.

0:22:450:22:48

A weapon that harnessed nature.

0:22:480:22:50

Not chemical, but biological.

0:22:540:22:56

Biological weapons are live organisms.

0:23:010:23:05

Biological weapons can replicate themselves.

0:23:050:23:07

If you're using an infectious disease, once you've infected

0:23:070:23:12

a certain part of the population, that would then spread on its own.

0:23:120:23:16

Their potential impact is unbounded.

0:23:160:23:19

This is Gruinard Island.

0:23:260:23:28

During the war, it was the unlikely location of Porton Down's new

0:23:290:23:33

biological weapons testing programme.

0:23:330:23:36

It would be the West's first weapon of mass destruction.

0:23:380:23:42

'It was here in 1942 that the very first scientifically

0:23:440:23:47

'controlled BW field trials were carried out.

0:23:470:23:51

'Sheep were used for the trials.'

0:23:510:23:53

Morning.

0:23:550:23:56

Very good, thanks.

0:23:560:23:58

The island sits in a wide bay,

0:24:010:24:03

far from any centre of population on the north-west coast of Scotland.

0:24:030:24:08

It was the perfect place for Porton scientists to secretly

0:24:090:24:12

test their new weapon.

0:24:120:24:14

To do their tests, they needed a bleak, isolated island,

0:24:190:24:23

some animals to experiment on, and a suitably lethal microbe.

0:24:230:24:28

The microbe they used was Bacillus anthracis, anthrax.

0:24:310:24:36

It causes severe and often fatal respiratory collapse.

0:24:360:24:39

And it's persistent.

0:24:440:24:46

Its spores can lie dormant in soil for decades.

0:24:460:24:49

After Porton had done their experiments,

0:24:490:24:51

the island had to be quarantined for 40 years,

0:24:510:24:55

before it was finally cleaned up.

0:24:550:24:57

This is a bleak place, isn't it?

0:25:000:25:02

The plan was to build an anthrax bomb

0:25:060:25:09

and test its effectiveness on sheep.

0:25:090:25:11

The bacterium that causes anthrax is a very hardy little organism.

0:25:140:25:18

It forms a spore, which protects it against high temperatures

0:25:180:25:21

and extreme environments.

0:25:210:25:23

But how do you turn the spore into a weapon?

0:25:230:25:26

This is an aerosol. Tiny drops of liquid in air.

0:25:340:25:39

And if I play them by this machine, you can

0:25:390:25:42

see they are absolutely tiny.

0:25:420:25:45

One to three microns across.

0:25:450:25:47

Which means there are probably about a 30th of the width

0:25:470:25:50

of a human hair.

0:25:500:25:52

The thing is that because they are so small,

0:25:520:25:54

if there were spores inside there, they would go deep inside the lungs.

0:25:540:25:59

It also means that they can travel considerable distances.

0:25:590:26:03

The challenge was to suspend anthrax in an aerosol.

0:26:040:26:08

'The sheep are being put into exposure crates

0:26:100:26:14

'to ensure that it faces the cloud.'

0:26:140:26:16

I'm going to recreate part of their experiment, using a harmless cloud.

0:26:200:26:24

'The bomb is fired and the wind carries the cloud towards

0:26:330:26:36

'the line of animals and impingers.'

0:26:360:26:38

Downwind, a particle counter measures

0:26:410:26:44

the concentration of the aerosol.

0:26:440:26:46

Can you imagine sort of sheep tethered here,

0:26:470:26:50

having no idea what's about to hit them?

0:26:500:26:53

The anthrax spores just spreading out.

0:26:530:26:56

And the particles are going to hit me now.

0:26:570:27:00

Yep, there they go, shooting up. We're now at 40,000, 68,000.

0:27:000:27:04

In the original experiment, every particle would contain some spores.

0:27:060:27:11

And they would have started to breathe in,

0:27:120:27:15

the spores would have gone deep into their lungs.

0:27:150:27:18

It's actually very, very chilling when you see it

0:27:180:27:21

and you can imagine the scientists over there and the sheep here.

0:27:210:27:25

The experiment worked.

0:27:310:27:32

In fact, the results were even better than they had dared hope.

0:27:340:27:37

'On the third day after exposure, the casualties begin.

0:27:390:27:42

'Dead sheep can be seen further down the line.

0:27:420:27:45

'They show conclusively that bacteria could be put

0:27:450:27:47

'up by a simple weapon and that the results might be much more

0:27:470:27:51

'striking than with a chemical filling.

0:27:510:27:53

'This was, of course, something that had never been demonstrated before.'

0:27:530:27:57

Although in World War I, chemical weapons were often deadly,

0:27:590:28:03

many like mustard injured more than they killed.

0:28:030:28:06

Anthrax was different.

0:28:080:28:10

It had the potential to produce massive fatalities.

0:28:100:28:13

An anthrax bomb went into production.

0:28:160:28:19

Thankfully, Britain never had to use it.

0:28:190:28:22

Which turned out to be a wise decision.

0:28:240:28:27

As the war ended, the Allies discovered that Nazi

0:28:310:28:34

scientists had perfected a new type of chemical weapon.

0:28:340:28:37

A nerve agent called sarin.

0:28:420:28:44

A colourless, odourless liquid.

0:28:470:28:50

Lethal in even the tiniest amounts.

0:28:500:28:53

In this harrowing footage from Sweden,

0:28:530:28:57

a rabbit is given a lethal dose of sarin.

0:28:570:29:00

'This is an authentic laboratory record.

0:29:020:29:04

'The effects would be the same in man.

0:29:040:29:07

'The pupils shrink, the eyes and nose run, the mouth drools.

0:29:090:29:15

'The chest is tight and the heart slows down.'

0:29:150:29:18

Inside one of Porton Down's most secure laboratories,

0:29:280:29:31

I'm about to encounter the Nazis' most infamous nerve agent.

0:29:310:29:36

That's a crude version, so that's impure sarin.

0:29:450:29:49

-And that is what pure sarin looks like.

-Really?

0:29:490:29:52

-Don't get too close.

-I'm being told not to get too close.

0:29:520:29:55

-You can put your hands on here.

-I'm a bit enthusiastic.

-Don't get close.

0:29:550:29:59

Thank you very much, yeah.

0:29:590:30:01

Now, this is very different to anything that I've seen before

0:30:010:30:04

because this is sarin, which is a hugely notorious liquid.

0:30:040:30:09

It's actually a nerve agent. Nasty symptoms associated with it.

0:30:090:30:13

This really is very, very evil stuff.

0:30:130:30:15

Now, your nerves are a bit like an electrical system.

0:30:180:30:21

What would normally happen is you stub your toe, for example,

0:30:210:30:24

the signal goes down the wires to a synapse, represented by the bell. BELL RINGS

0:30:240:30:29

Then, the nerves release a neurotransmitter called

0:30:300:30:34

acetylcholine, which carries the signal across the synapse

0:30:340:30:39

to the brain, saying "pain".

0:30:390:30:41

And then your body produces an enzyme called

0:30:410:30:43

acetylcholinesterase and switches the whole thing off,

0:30:430:30:47

stopping it continuously firing.

0:30:470:30:50

What sarin and other nerve agents do is

0:30:500:30:53

they prevent the enzyme from breaking down the neurotransmitter.

0:30:530:30:58

And your nerves are just switched on all the time.

0:30:580:31:01

The result is complete and utter chaos.

0:31:010:31:03

You can't breathe properly because you can't control your in

0:31:030:31:07

and your out and you asphyxiate.

0:31:070:31:09

You lose control of your bowels, you lose control of your bladder,

0:31:090:31:12

you basically urinate, you defecate, and you die very, very badly.

0:31:120:31:16

One Porton official once described the one moment where we had been

0:31:210:31:25

found with our trousers down and that was nerve gas.

0:31:250:31:29

They had not anticipated this type of agent. It was extremely toxic.

0:31:290:31:35

It was fast acting.

0:31:350:31:37

And it was able to be used in different types of environment,

0:31:370:31:40

from ground contamination through to inhalation.

0:31:400:31:44

So it had multiple ways of being applied in combat.

0:31:440:31:47

'Muscles go into uncontrollable spasm.

0:31:480:31:52

'Breathing is paralysed and death follows.'

0:31:520:31:55

Close down Porton Down! Close it down!

0:31:590:32:03

Animal testing has always been a key part of the work at Porton Down

0:32:030:32:09

and a matter of increasing public concern.

0:32:090:32:12

Animal research.

0:32:120:32:14

-Clearly, a lot of animals have passed through Porton Down.

-Yeah.

0:32:140:32:17

What are your thoughts about it?

0:32:170:32:20

I would start by saying that we use animals in experiments for a purpose

0:32:200:32:24

and that is to give our armed forces the protection that they need.

0:32:240:32:28

We do it in a very regulated environment,

0:32:280:32:30

so we are regulated under the relevant legislation

0:32:300:32:32

that has been passed by parliament and we are regulated by Home Office inspectors who have their own

0:32:320:32:37

passes and can come here at any time,

0:32:370:32:40

as they do, to examine the welfare of our animals and what we do.

0:32:400:32:43

And lastly, we've done a lot in the last decade,

0:32:430:32:47

under the three Rs - replacement, refinement,

0:32:470:32:51

and reduction - to reduce the number of animals that we use.

0:32:510:32:55

In the 1950s, sarin experiments on animals couldn't give

0:33:010:33:05

Porton Down scientists all the answers they wanted.

0:33:050:33:08

The pressures of the Cold War led to the

0:33:130:33:16

intensification of a particularly controversial

0:33:160:33:20

type of experiment - the use of chemical agents on human volunteers.

0:33:200:33:24

At its height, they carried out over 500 human experiments a year.

0:33:270:33:32

Then, in May 1953,

0:33:350:33:37

something happened that cast a very long shadow over Porton Down.

0:33:370:33:41

An RAF volunteer called Ronald Maddison took

0:33:410:33:44

part in an experiment involving sarin.

0:33:440:33:47

He went into the gas chamber.

0:33:480:33:51

A little while later, he says he feels sick.

0:33:510:33:55

He then collapses.

0:33:550:33:57

They frantically try to revive him, but in fact,

0:33:570:34:01

he had died at 11am that day, 45 minutes after going in to...

0:34:010:34:05

After being tested with nerve gas.

0:34:050:34:07

Maddison's death was a huge shock to people at Porton Down,

0:34:070:34:12

but no-one was prepared to take responsibility.

0:34:120:34:16

Instead, his cause of death was covered up.

0:34:160:34:18

The death of Ronald Maddison was one of the biggest cover-ups

0:34:210:34:24

of the Cold War.

0:34:240:34:27

In that classic way of how British government works,

0:34:270:34:31

this tragedy happened and the only thought that the government had was,

0:34:310:34:37

let's hush it up, which they did do successfully for decades.

0:34:370:34:41

One of the darkest periods in the history of Porton Down is

0:34:410:34:44

the death of a young volunteer in 1953

0:34:440:34:47

and it wasn't so much his death, as the fact that the

0:34:470:34:50

events around it were kept secret for such a long time.

0:34:500:34:53

Can you explain to me why it was considered necessary to do that?

0:34:530:34:57

Well, as you say, that was the 1950s, a very long time ago, and the

0:34:570:35:02

British government has acknowledged that things were not done well.

0:35:020:35:06

Can you explain to me the thinking behind it? What were they thinking?

0:35:060:35:09

-Do they think - we can just keep this thing buried for a very long time?

-I can't answer for people of

0:35:090:35:13

that time. All I can say is the British government has acknowledged that

0:35:130:35:17

mistakes were made and all I can say is that the laboratory that I lead

0:35:170:35:20

today operates to the very highest scientific and ethical standards.

0:35:200:35:25

In 2004, and after 50 years of campaigning,

0:35:250:35:28

Maddison's family finally got a new inquest.

0:35:280:35:32

My family has never known the truth and why he had to die so young.

0:35:320:35:36

We are grateful to the coroner for holding the inquest

0:35:360:35:41

so that we can finally know the truth.

0:35:410:35:45

The inquest declared that Ronald Maddison was unlawfully killed.

0:35:450:35:49

But it took two more years for the MoD to accept the verdict.

0:35:510:35:56

You understand that people are sometimes a bit

0:35:570:36:00

cynical about claims of transparency, granted the history?

0:36:000:36:04

-But it was a very long time ago.

-OK.

0:36:040:36:07

So you're saying it couldn't happen now?

0:36:070:36:09

The standards we operate to are the very highest.

0:36:090:36:11

We had lots of scrutiny and we certainly don't do any experiments

0:36:110:36:15

of the character that led to that regrettable death in 1953.

0:36:150:36:19

Ronald Maddison's death came just as the Cold War was intensifying.

0:36:270:36:32

Porton Down accelerated their chemical weapons programme

0:36:330:36:38

on an industrial scale.

0:36:380:36:40

They developed a new nerve agent, up to 170 times more potent than sarin.

0:36:410:36:47

Venomous agent X.

0:36:520:36:54

VX.

0:36:540:36:56

Now, it is a nerve agent that is far more powerful than sarin.

0:36:590:37:03

Marcus is making some at the moment.

0:37:030:37:06

For obvious reasons, we're not going to dwell on the process.

0:37:060:37:09

Porton Down originally developed VX from an industrial pesticide,

0:37:150:37:19

which was banned when chemists realised just how lethal it was.

0:37:190:37:25

-What does VX do?

-It's a nerve agent.

0:37:260:37:30

It acts in exactly the same way as sarin, but it's incredibly toxic.

0:37:300:37:36

Much more toxic than sarin.

0:37:360:37:38

-Wow.

-A pinhead drop on your skin would be enough to kill you.

0:37:380:37:42

Why do you make it?

0:37:460:37:48

We need to understand it and we need to be confident that all

0:37:480:37:52

the equipment, the clothing, the detection gear,

0:37:520:37:55

that our operators, soldiers, have got, works and is effective,

0:37:550:38:01

should they ever, God forbid, come across something like this.

0:38:010:38:04

Cos this part is far higher risk from the point of view

0:38:060:38:09

of the agent coming out of containment.

0:38:090:38:11

If we put these on, just in case, if we get it on ourselves,

0:38:110:38:14

we can step straight into the shower in the corner and wash it off.

0:38:140:38:17

OK. Into the shower, right.

0:38:170:38:20

I guess that brings home the reality of how dangerous this stuff is.

0:38:200:38:24

To distil crude VX, they use a vacuum to lower the boiling point.

0:38:280:38:32

OK, can we clear the lab of everybody, except just Marcus

0:38:350:38:39

and the assistant at the back.

0:38:390:38:40

OK, so they're just applying the vacuum now.

0:38:450:38:48

-And they've asked me to get out of there, just in case.

-OK, ready?

0:38:480:38:52

Sash is down.

0:38:520:38:54

Because it's so dangerous,

0:38:550:38:56

Marcus is only allowed to make a few millilitres.

0:38:560:39:00

OK, good to go?

0:39:030:39:04

That stuff is incredibly lethal.

0:39:040:39:06

OK, I think we're good to go. OK.

0:39:180:39:20

OK, so nothing exploded, I guess.

0:39:230:39:25

Nothing exploded. It's got an incredibly high vacuum on it now.

0:39:250:39:29

It's just starting to sort of come up.

0:39:290:39:32

You can see this liquid condensing and sort of going up

0:39:320:39:34

and going back down.

0:39:340:39:36

-Can you see that?

-I do.

-That's the pure VX, coming up.

0:39:360:39:38

So this stuff here, this is VX. How is it different to sarin?

0:39:380:39:42

There's probably enough there to kill tens

0:39:420:39:46

if not hundreds of thousands of people.

0:39:460:39:49

-Blimey. It's that lethal?

-Yeah.

0:39:490:39:52

Tens to thousands of people. Right.

0:39:520:39:54

It would be horrendous.

0:39:540:39:56

Do you find any of this sort of scary?

0:39:590:40:03

-Um... It's always in the back of your mind, how toxic it is.

-Yes.

0:40:030:40:08

VX is the most potent chemical weapon ever created.

0:40:110:40:15

It would also be the last Porton Down would ever develop.

0:40:150:40:19

And that's because by the end of the 1950s,

0:40:220:40:24

the British government had decided to focus its limited

0:40:240:40:29

resources on a very different weapon of mass destruction.

0:40:290:40:33

EXPLOSION

0:40:360:40:38

'Britain fires its first H bomb to join the United States

0:40:400:40:43

'and Russia as ranking atomic powers.'

0:40:430:40:46

The British thermonuclear bomb meant Porton Down's offensive

0:40:460:40:50

weapons programmes were terminated.

0:40:500:40:52

They didn't need another weapon of mass destruction,

0:40:540:40:57

they didn't need and biological weapons.

0:40:570:41:00

And the worry, I think, to some extent,

0:41:000:41:03

was that it wasn't that they were not good weapons,

0:41:030:41:07

militarily speaking, it was they didn't want chemical

0:41:070:41:12

and biological weapons to become a poor man's nuclear weapon.

0:41:120:41:16

'New work is undertaken on the development of munitions

0:41:160:41:20

'for the spreading of diseases.

0:41:200:41:22

'The research is limited to that necessary to enable

0:41:220:41:24

'an effective means of defence to be devised.'

0:41:240:41:27

But other nations didn't give up any of their chemical

0:41:290:41:32

and biological weapons programmes.

0:41:320:41:35

GUNFIRE AND EXPLOSIONS

0:41:350:41:38

As the Cold War developed, Porton became concerned that the

0:41:380:41:42

USSR might detonate a biological bomb over Britain.

0:41:420:41:46

So, in secret, they sprayed aerosols over populated areas to try

0:41:490:41:53

and understand the impact of such an attack.

0:41:530:41:56

The public were never told,

0:41:560:41:58

but the evidence suggests the aerosols were harmless.

0:41:580:42:02

You'd have spraying out clouds that would then waft in over cities,

0:42:020:42:08

inland, to see how biological weapons would travel,

0:42:080:42:13

environmentally, with air currents, exposure to sunlight,

0:42:130:42:16

all those things.

0:42:160:42:18

'As the cloud drifted inland,

0:42:180:42:20

'it was sampled by mobile sampling stations.'

0:42:200:42:23

What Porton would says is that what they were spraying was

0:42:230:42:27

completely harmless,

0:42:270:42:29

but again, this was a programme that happened in complete secrecy

0:42:290:42:35

and what Porton would argue was - of course we had to keep it secret

0:42:350:42:40

because we didn't want to tell the Russians what we were doing.

0:42:400:42:44

Thankfully, the Cold War ended without chemical or

0:42:470:42:51

biological weapons being used in anger.

0:42:510:42:53

But then, a new war began in the Middle East.

0:42:570:43:00

1988, Halabja, Iraq.

0:43:080:43:11

Saddam Hussein did what even Hitler wouldn't dare.

0:43:130:43:16

He unleashed sarin.

0:43:200:43:22

For the first time in history, a nerve agent was used in warfare.

0:43:230:43:27

'These are some of the 5,000 people killed by Iraqi gas

0:43:290:43:33

'attacks in and near the town of Halabja.

0:43:330:43:36

'The children look asleep on the grass.'

0:43:360:43:39

During the 1980s,

0:43:410:43:42

I was actually working on the current affairs programme

0:43:420:43:45

Newsnight and I used to sit in the basement watching some really,

0:43:450:43:49

really horrible footage from the Iran-Iraq War,

0:43:490:43:52

the sort of things we could never transmit.

0:43:520:43:55

I still remember it clearly.

0:43:550:43:57

There were so many dead people, so many dead children,

0:43:570:44:01

who had been killed horribly by a chemical weapon.

0:44:010:44:05

It's very disturbing, looking at these dead bodies,

0:44:050:44:08

because they look almost as if they're asleep,

0:44:080:44:10

but you know they actually died very, very badly.

0:44:100:44:13

Saddam Hussein had left the Geneva Protocol in tatters.

0:44:210:44:25

In response, the UN instigated a ban on all chemical weapons,

0:44:280:44:33

production, stockpiles, and use.

0:44:330:44:36

To ensure the world complied,

0:44:380:44:40

they created the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.

0:44:400:44:44

The OPCW's role is to inspect and police all sites where chemical

0:44:540:44:58

agents are present and that, of course, includes Porton Down.

0:44:580:45:02

We're going to check the X-ray records.

0:45:030:45:05

Unlike us, they can see whatever they want, anywhere, anytime.

0:45:050:45:11

Morning.

0:45:190:45:21

The inspection begins where the old chemical weapons are stored.

0:45:210:45:25

First, we'll check the new findings, since last inspections.

0:45:250:45:28

What we're doing today is actually verifying the declaration that's

0:45:280:45:33

been made and we're doing that through a physical inventory check.

0:45:330:45:38

And a record check.

0:45:380:45:40

8648.

0:45:400:45:42

8648, the big one.

0:45:420:45:45

Yeah, perfect.

0:45:450:45:47

I just want to check a few random ones.

0:45:470:45:50

It would be politically embarrassing for the UK to actually fail

0:45:520:45:55

a CWC inspection.

0:45:550:45:57

We have to ensure that all the information that we give

0:45:570:46:00

and the information that is verified by the OPCW is 100% accurate.

0:46:000:46:04

I can see there, look.

0:46:050:46:08

Yes. Standard mortar.

0:46:080:46:10

25 pounder.

0:46:100:46:12

8741. Perfect.

0:46:120:46:14

So far, so good. Everything's checking out so far. Yes.

0:46:160:46:19

Next, we would like to inspect inside.

0:46:220:46:25

-Yes.

-Nothing is off limits to the OPCW.

0:46:250:46:28

We are about now to go to our incinerator site.

0:46:290:46:34

We declare that we incinerate the agent

0:46:340:46:36

when it comes out of the munitions and so they are just checking,

0:46:360:46:40

essentially, that is what we've done.

0:46:400:46:43

These are the OPCW guys.

0:46:430:46:46

Looking at the incineration records from the HS area,

0:46:460:46:51

so to prove that you've incinerated what we've sent down.

0:46:510:46:55

-8054, isn't it?

-8054.

0:46:550:46:58

The UN strictly controls the amount of chemical agents

0:46:580:47:01

that can be manufactured or stockpiled in places like this.

0:47:010:47:05

We will show you what they look like when they come out.

0:47:050:47:08

Their inspectors also try to ensure that none can be

0:47:080:47:11

used for offensive purposes.

0:47:110:47:13

But not every country complies.

0:47:130:47:16

And terrorists, of course, are a law unto themselves.

0:47:160:47:20

OK, as you can see here, this is the end product, post-incineration.

0:47:200:47:25

If I can take an example of one piece here,

0:47:250:47:28

this is...well, was a 25-pounder shell.

0:47:280:47:31

-The residue agent will have all burnt off post 800 degrees.

-Yup.

0:47:310:47:36

Everything they've wanted to check,

0:47:360:47:37

we've been able to supply the right information and the right

0:47:370:47:41

paperwork and they've seen the ammunition and by getting

0:47:410:47:45

a good report at the end of it shows that we're doing our jobs well.

0:47:450:47:48

Now, ideally, this would be the end of the story.

0:47:540:47:56

Chemical weapons being destroyed, the world saved.

0:47:560:48:00

Unfortunately, that is not what is happening.

0:48:000:48:03

If anything, chemical weapons are on the rise.

0:48:030:48:06

In fact, more are being used now than at any time

0:48:060:48:09

since the First World War.

0:48:090:48:11

The rise began with the number of chemical

0:48:160:48:19

and biological attacks by individuals and small groups.

0:48:190:48:23

'These people had been making their way to work

0:48:230:48:25

'when the nerve gas began to seep into the air.'

0:48:250:48:28

Japan, 13 civilians died after an attack on a subway.

0:48:290:48:33

The United States, a series of anthrax letters killed five people.

0:48:330:48:37

But in 2013, an attack in Syria killed hundreds.

0:48:410:48:44

'Something terrible has happened in a Damascus suburb.

0:48:470:48:50

'It has all the signs of a massive chemical attack.'

0:48:500:48:53

Nothing on this scale had been seen since Halabja.

0:48:550:48:59

And as the leading chemical weapons

0:49:030:49:06

laboratory in the world, samples came to Porton Down.

0:49:060:49:09

Hi, there.

0:49:120:49:14

In their secret forensic laboratory, Cerys was the scientist who

0:49:160:49:20

had to establish what chemical agent had killed so many people.

0:49:200:49:24

OK, so describe to me the sequence of events.

0:49:260:49:29

So, some of the first samples we received were blood, hair,

0:49:290:49:32

-and urine.

-Did you know where it had come from?

0:49:320:49:35

We knew it had come from a person who thought that they'd been

0:49:350:49:38

exposed to some kind of chemical.

0:49:380:49:41

-OK.

-At that time, it wasn't clear what the chemical was.

0:49:410:49:45

So all of the samples were extracted by different means.

0:49:450:49:49

Got the first results within probably eight or ten hours.

0:49:490:49:53

And then the confirmatory results across all the samples within

0:49:530:49:57

the next 24 hours.

0:49:570:49:59

The chemical agent that killed up to 1,500 men,

0:50:000:50:04

women and children in Damascus was the nerve agent sarin.

0:50:040:50:09

When you get the first results,

0:50:090:50:11

do you call everyone else in to go - look, we've found something?

0:50:110:50:16

With the very first set of samples, where it was the first time

0:50:160:50:19

that we'd seen evidence of sarin exposure, we did.

0:50:190:50:22

We kind of stood in front of the instruments,

0:50:220:50:24

scratching our heads, because none of us

0:50:240:50:26

had really expected to find a positive at that point.

0:50:260:50:30

Had you searched before?

0:50:300:50:31

No, it was the first set of samples that we'd

0:50:310:50:34

had from the incidents in Syria.

0:50:340:50:37

Samples in the Porton Down laboratory shows

0:50:390:50:41

the use of chemical weapons in that Damascus suburb.

0:50:410:50:45

Blood and hair tested positive for sarin.

0:50:450:50:48

The scale of the attack caused international outrage.

0:50:480:50:52

And the finger of blame seemed to point at the Syrian regime.

0:50:520:50:55

Military action soon followed.

0:50:590:51:01

If we fail to act, other tyrants will have no reason to think

0:51:010:51:05

twice about acquiring poison gas and using them.

0:51:050:51:09

And it could be easier for terrorist

0:51:090:51:11

organisations to obtain these weapons.

0:51:110:51:14

The war on terror has changed and broadened Porton Down's remit.

0:51:180:51:23

What was once solely a chemical and biological weapon facility

0:51:250:51:29

now focuses on all areas of modern warfare.

0:51:290:51:32

Developing battlefield equipment based on quantum physics.

0:51:340:51:39

Advanced ballistics protection.

0:51:390:51:42

You can get a measure here of the depth into flesh there.

0:51:440:51:47

And blast physics to protect troop carriers from IEDs.

0:51:490:51:53

-EXPLOSION

-The sheer magnitudes of the pressures that we're seeing,

0:51:530:51:57

how that then interacts with an armoured vehicle, would allow me

0:51:570:52:00

to design something that's better, stronger, in the future.

0:52:000:52:04

We've continued to work in countering

0:52:040:52:06

the threat of chemical weapons and then biological weapons,

0:52:060:52:09

but today, we're about so much more than that.

0:52:090:52:12

It's about countering the threat to our armed forces,

0:52:120:52:14

however that is posed. Whether that is bullets, whether that's missiles,

0:52:140:52:17

whether that's improvised explosive devices,

0:52:170:52:20

it's about providing our armed forces with that protection.

0:52:200:52:24

An unlikely recruit in the search

0:52:310:52:33

for a protection is the orb web spider.

0:52:330:52:36

Her silk is being harvested to help scientists counter a new threat.

0:52:390:52:43

That one of the deadliest diseases known to man could be

0:52:470:52:50

used as a weapon.

0:52:500:52:53

So, once the spider's spun its web over the frames, then it

0:52:530:52:57

goes into this piece of equipment, which is called sow.

0:52:570:53:01

And it's basically how we expose it to the virus.

0:53:010:53:04

You can see there's a very narrow gap.

0:53:040:53:07

-So you spray some virus in here?

-Spray the virus, bacteria, whatever you want to spray.

0:53:070:53:11

The aerosol passes over the frames and as the spider's web would

0:53:110:53:14

capture dew in the morning, it will capture the aerosol particles,

0:53:140:53:18

which will have viruses or bacteria, and we can count what's in there.

0:53:180:53:22

The virus Porton Down are using causes one of the most

0:53:260:53:29

contagious diseases in the world.

0:53:290:53:32

Two years ago, in West Africa, it killed over 10,000 people.

0:53:340:53:38

It is Ebola.

0:53:410:53:42

You will be familiar with the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone.

0:53:440:53:47

Of course, when something like that happens,

0:53:470:53:50

it causes questions to be asked of - here's a pathological agent,

0:53:500:53:55

could it be used by our adversaries, whether states or terrorists,

0:53:550:54:00

to threaten our armed forces or the British people?

0:54:000:54:04

To explore this potential threat,

0:54:040:54:07

Porton Down are spraying Ebola across spiders'

0:54:070:54:10

webs to discover just how long it remains contagious in air.

0:54:100:54:14

Stephen leads the experiment.

0:54:170:54:19

Why do you want to know how long these viruses will survive?

0:54:220:54:26

Well, the main purpose is to be able to add to that broad basis

0:54:260:54:31

of knowledge on how to control these viruses.

0:54:310:54:34

If they should get released, we have some sort of basic

0:54:340:54:37

understanding of how they may well transmit.

0:54:370:54:40

So it's adding to that broad basis of knowledge that we can then

0:54:400:54:44

add to other experiments that we do here.

0:54:440:54:48

Now, Ebola is a particularly dangerous virus,

0:54:480:54:50

so they don't want to run any risks at all that it might escape.

0:54:500:54:54

That's why we're in what's called a cat four laboratory.

0:54:540:54:58

This is as secure as it is possible to get.

0:54:580:55:00

So far at Porton Down, I've been allowed alongside all

0:55:020:55:05

the lethal chemical agents, but this time, I can't even get in the room.

0:55:050:55:10

So they're just in there, wearing their wonderful space age suits.

0:55:120:55:16

And very soon now, they're going to release the cloud of Ebola viruses.

0:55:160:55:21

Now, I can hear what they're saying through this earpiece.

0:55:210:55:25

I can, if necessary, talk to them.

0:55:250:55:27

And I can see, via this camera, what they're up to.

0:55:270:55:30

Hi there. How are you doing?

0:55:300:55:33

Hello, yeah. We're loading up the frames with the spiders'

0:55:330:55:37

webs on into the sow now, ready for us to turn

0:55:370:55:40

on the aerosolization kit and then expose the spiders' webs to Ebola.

0:55:400:55:44

Right, we're ready to go now.

0:55:460:55:47

Fantastic.

0:55:470:55:49

Do you ever get nervous at this point?

0:55:490:55:51

A little bit apprehensive, but no, we're OK. We're good to go now.

0:55:530:55:57

OK.

0:55:570:55:59

Right.

0:55:590:56:01

'OK.'

0:56:010:56:02

All in.

0:56:020:56:04

OK, we're going to start spraying virus in three, two, one, spray.

0:56:040:56:10

So, hopefully, what you can see there is the aerosol

0:56:100:56:13

nebuliser aerosolizing the Ebola virus.

0:56:130:56:16

And it's travelling down this pipe here, along these pipes

0:56:160:56:20

and is passing by the spiders' webs, through this sow,

0:56:200:56:23

and then back around and circulating round the machine and back out.

0:56:230:56:26

-20 seconds left.

-There have been incidences in history,

0:56:260:56:29

for example the anthrax outbreak in Washington DC,

0:56:290:56:32

where terrorists used a pathogen to threaten a civilian population.

0:56:320:56:37

So, of course, we look at not just how to defend our armed forces,

0:56:370:56:42

we look at - how could this be used by an adversary?

0:56:420:56:44

Three, two, one.

0:56:460:56:49

That's stopped the sampling now.

0:56:490:56:52

After 19 minutes,

0:56:530:56:55

more than 30% of the aerosolized Ebola still remains viable.

0:56:550:57:01

Unfortunately, the experiment proves it could be

0:57:010:57:04

effective as a potential weapon.

0:57:040:57:07

Today, it's Ebola. It may well be another virus tomorrow.

0:57:070:57:11

So, there's always going to be emerging diseases coming through.

0:57:110:57:14

Primarily, they are going to be viruses.

0:57:140:57:16

Which is why we've got this capability here to be able

0:57:160:57:19

to do that sort of work.

0:57:190:57:21

That's the work that we study

0:57:210:57:23

and I would hope the British people would recognise that's a good

0:57:230:57:26

thing to do, as we think about their safety and the safety of our

0:57:260:57:29

armed forces, given that these threats are out there in the world.

0:57:290:57:33

Looking forwards and responding to new threats is ultimately

0:57:360:57:40

what Porton Down's scientists have done for 100 years.

0:57:400:57:43

Over that time, they have developed weapons of mass destruction...

0:57:440:57:48

A pinhead drop on your skin would be enough to kill you.

0:57:490:57:53

..using controversial methods...

0:57:530:57:56

Close down Porton Down.

0:57:560:57:58

..and at times, they have hidden the truth.

0:57:580:58:02

The only thought that the government had was - let's hush it up.

0:58:020:58:05

Porton Down is a place of contradictions.

0:58:070:58:10

It's a secret institution who are trying to be more open.

0:58:100:58:14

They were born in war,

0:58:140:58:15

but they see their primary purpose now as defensive.

0:58:150:58:18

They have had their dark moments,

0:58:180:58:21

but they have also saved a lot of lives.

0:58:210:58:23

And I have no doubt that the UK would be a much more

0:58:230:58:27

vulnerable place without them.

0:58:270:58:29

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