Soldiers returned nurse's accelerator (9)

I believe the answer is:

sigmatron

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'accelerator' is the definition.
I don't know anything about this answer so I cannot judge whether this works.

'soldiers returned nurse's' is the wordplay.
'soldiers' becomes 'gis' (GI is an informal term for a US soldier).
'returned' shows that the letters should be reversed in order.
'nurse' becomes 'matron' (matron is a kind of nurse).
'gis' backwards is 'sig'.
'sig'+'matron'='SIGMATRON'

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(Another definition for sigmatron that I've seen is " X-ray machine".)

I've seen this clue in the Sydney Morning Herald.

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