This radio programme formed part of the BBC Radio 4 series - Document - which examined the story behind newly declassified UK Goverment documents. The Secrets of the Icewhale tells the story of the UK Government's involvement with Biological Warfare (BW) experiments, which were carried out in public areas of the United Kingdom during the Cold War. During the early 1960s millions of people were exposed to clouds of radioactive xenon gas from the Harwell Nuclear Research Establishment.
The gas was sprayed from the top of an incinerator stack at the Oxfordshire facility.
Over four lunchtimes in July 1961, men in white body suits released large clouds of the gas over English towns and villages to help estimate what effect a biological or chemical warfare attack would have on Britain.

Also contained in the programme, are details of the extensive BW experiments which were conducted over large parts of Southern England by military scientists from the Microbiological Research Establishment (MRE), Porton Down. These latter experiments exposed local residents to massive clouds of two types of live bacteria - E. coli MRE162 and Baclillus subtilis var niger (aka Bacillus globigii or BG).

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