Corporate Watch: Shell’s Nuclear Past
“So close was their relationship with the nuclear establishment that the Division of Atomic Energy at the erstwhile Ministry of Supply was based at Shell-Mex House”: “Shell’s press department has been singularly reluctant to help us with this research.”: “They cannot tell us why they still own a share-holding in Ultracentrifuge Nederland BV, the holding company that owns 33% of the uranium enrichment company, Urenco.”
Posted 21 Oct 04
Corporate Watch has some new findings to report on Shell’s past involvement in the nuclear industry.
Documents from the Public Records Office at Kew filled in more of the early history. File AB16/1856 is a series of letters and documents concerning Shell’s early nuclear ambitions from the early to the late 1950s. It shows that Shell successfully negotiated deals to supply heavy water and nuclear grade graphite to the UK’s nuclear industry. It also reveals Shell’s ambitions to develop nuclear reactors for ship propulsion and that they sent at least one scientist to the UKAEA’s “Reactor School” at Harwell as part of that project. So close was their relationship with the nuclear establishment that the Division of Atomic Energy at the erstwhile Ministry of Supply was based at Shell-Mex House. AB 16/1856 details some of their activities from 1950 to 1959. The file is suggestive of ongoing programmes, but we have no information on activities between 1959 and 1973 (when they took a 50% share in reactor manufacturer General Atomic – see CW Newsletter 16).
Shell’s press department has been singularly reluctant to help us with this research. In spite of their repeated promises to conduct research into this area, some questions have only been answered after continual prompting, and others not at all. “It was a long time ago,” is their customary refrain. We do not know what became of Shell’s ambitions to manufacture marine reactors. They cannot tell us why they still own a share-holding in Ultracentrifuge Nederland BV, the holding company that owns 33% of the uranium enrichment company, Urenco. And they still cannot say whether the matters we have brought to their attention cover the whole of their nuclear interests past and present.
Any new leads or documentation would be gratefully received.
This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.
Royal Dutch Shell conspired directly with Hitler, financed the Nazi Party, was anti-Semitic and sold out its own Dutch Jewish employees to the Nazis. Shell had a close relationship with the Nazis during and after the reign of Sir Henri Deterding, an ardent Nazi, and the founder and decades long leader of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. His burial ceremony, which had all the trappings of a state funeral, was held at his private estate in Mecklenburg, Germany. The spectacle (photographs below) included a funeral procession led by a horse drawn funeral hearse with senior Nazis officials and senior Royal Dutch Shell directors in attendance, Nazi salutes at the graveside, swastika banners on display and wreaths and personal tributes from Adolf Hitler and Reichsmarschall, Hermann Goring. Deterding was an honored associate and supporter of Hitler and a personal friend of Goring.
Deterding was the guest of Hitler during a four day summit meeting at Berchtesgaden. Sir Henri and Hitler both had ambitions on Russian oil fields. Only an honored personal guest would be rewarded with a private four day meeting at Hitler’s mountain top retreat.
IN JULY 2007, MR BILL CAMPBELL (ABOVE, A RETIRED GROUP AUDITOR OF SHELL INTERNATIONAL SENT AN EMAIL TO EVERY UK MP AND MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS: 
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A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
