The United Kingdom conducted 12 major nuclear weapons tests in Australia between 1952 and 1957. These explosions occurred at the Montebello Islands, Emu Field and Maralinga. [1]
The United Kingdom conducted 12 major nuclear weapons tests in Australia between 1952 and 1957. These explosions occurred at the Montebello Islands, Emu Field and Maralinga. [1]
The British conducted testing in the Pacific Ocean at Malden Island and Kiritimati known at the time as Christmas Island (not to be confused with Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean) between 1957 and 1958. [2] These were airbursts mostly occurring over water or suspended a few hundred metres above the ground by balloon. [2]
In Australia there were three sites. Testing was carried out between 1952 and 1957 and was mostly done at the surface. [2] A few hundred smaller scale tests were conducted at both Emu Field and Maralinga between 1953 and 1963. [3]
Two separate atomic test projects occurred at the islands, the first being Operation Hurricane and the second being Operation Mosaic. Following the second Mosaic explosion, the radioactive cloud that was supposed to be taken away from the site, was sent back by wind that was not anticipated by the British scientists. [4]
| Name | Date [5] | Yield [5] | Type | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Operation Hurricane/Mosaic | ||||
| Hurricane | 3 October 1952 11:15 | 25 kt | In the hull of HMS Plym | |
| Mosaic One | 16 May 1956 11:15 | 15 kt | Tower | |
| Mosaic Two | 19 June 1956 10:14 | 60 kt | Tower | |
The atomic tests at Emu Field in 1953 were known as Operation Totem. The test site of Emu Field was abandoned just hours after the second and final test, Totem 2.
| Name | Date [5] | Yield [5] | Type | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Operation Totem | ||||
| Totem One | 15 Oct 1953 07:00 | 10 kt | Tower | |
| Totem Two | 27 Oct 1953 07:00 | 8 kt | Tower | |
A testing site at Maralinga was established in 1955, close to a siding along the Trans-Australian Railway. Because supplies could be brought to the site via rail, it was preferred over Emu Field. A total of seven major tests were conducted at Maralinga. Both the Federal government and Australian newspapers at the time were very supportive of the tests. [6] In 1952, the Liberal Government passed legislation, the Defence (Special Undertakings) Act 1952, which allowed the British Government access to remote parts of Australia to undertake atmospheric nuclear weapons tests. The general public were largely unaware of the risks from the testing program, stemming from official secrecy about the testing program and the remote locations of the test sites.
Before the tests could begin the Maralinga Tjarutja, the traditional Aboriginal owners of the land, were forcibly removed. [7]
An air base at Woomera, 570 km away, which had been used for rocket testing, was initially used as a base from which planes were flown for testing of the bomb clouds. [7]
| Name | Date [5] | Yield [5] | Type | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Operation Buffalo | ||||
| One tree | 27 Sep 1956 17:00 | 12.9 kt | Tower | |
| Marcoo | 04 Oct 1956 16:30 | 1.4 kt | Ground-level | |
| Kite | 11 Oct 1956 14:27 | 2.9 kt | Airdrop | |
| Breakaway | 22 Oct 1956 00:05 | 10.8 kt | Tower | |
| Operation Antler | ||||
| Tadje | 14 Sep 1957 14:35 | 0.93 kt | Tower | |
| Biak | 25 Sep 1957 10:00 | 5.67 kt | Tower | |
| Taranaki | 09 Oct 1957 16:15 | 26.6 kt | Balloon | |
According to Liz Tynan from James Cook University, the Maralinga tests were a striking example of extreme secrecy, but by the late 1970s there was a marked change in how the Australian media covered the British nuclear tests. Avon Hudson, an atomic veteran who participated as an Australian serviceman during the later stage Minor Trials became a prominent whistleblower. Some resourceful investigative journalists emerged and political scrutiny became more intense. [8] In June 1993, New Scientist journalist Ian Anderson wrote an article entitled "Britain's dirty deeds at Maralinga" and several related articles. [9]
Over a decade, 1953 to 1963, a series of "Minor Trials" occurred testing components of the Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs using in some instances radioactive and toxic materials, such as Plutonium, Beryllium, and Uranium. Most of the minor trials involved conventional explosions to map out the radioactive dispersion and contamination of military assets, building structures and early crash test dummies. The Minor Trial of Vixen A dispersing Plutonium over a wide area by conventional explosive was considered to have had the longest half-life of any test or trial conducted in Australia.
| Year | Location | Trial | Material | Quantity (kg) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1953 | Emu Field | Kitten | Beryllium | 0.036 |
| 1955 | Naya 3 | Tims | Uranium | 13.8 |
| 1955 | Naya | Kittens | Uranium | 5 |
| 1955–1957 | Naya | Kittens | Beryllium | 0.75 |
| 1955–1957 | Kittens area | Kittens | Uranium | 120 |
| 1956–1960 | Kuli TM4 | Tims | Uranium | 6605 |
| 1956–1958 | Naya 1 | Rats | Uranium | 151 |
| 1957 | Naya | Tims | Beryllium | 1.6 |
| 1957 | Naya 3 | Kittens | Uranium | 23.4 |
| 1957 | Wewak | Vixen A | Uranium | 67.8 |
| 1957 | Dobo | Rats | Uranium | 28 |
| 1957 | Taranaki | Vixen B | Uranium | 25 |
| 1959 | Wewak VK33 | Vixen A | Plutonium | 0.008 |
| 1959 | Wewak VK29 | Vixen A | Beryllium | 0.14 |
| 1959 | Wewak VK28 | Vixen A | Beryllium | 0.25 |
| 1959 | Wewak VK27 | Vixen A | Beryllium | 0.27 |
| 1959 | Wewak VK30 | Vixen A | Beryllium | 0.1 |
| 1959–1960 | Kuli TM11 | Tims | Beryllium | 26.2 |
| 1959–1960 | Kuli TM11 | Tims | Uranium | 67 |
| 1960 | Naya TM100 | Tims | Plutonium | 0.6 |
| 1960–1962 | Naya 2 | Kittens | Uranium | 32 |
| 1960–1961 | Kuli TM16 | Tims | Beryllium | 39 |
| 1961 | Kuli TM50 | Tims | Uranium | 90 |
| 1961 | Naya TM101 | Tims | Plutonium | 0.6 |
| 1961 | Wewak VK60A | Vixen A | Plutonium | 0.294 |
| 1961 | Wewak VK60C | Vixen A | Plutonium | 0.277 |
| 1961 | Wewak 60A | Vixen A | Beryllium | 1.72 |
| 1961 | Wewak 60B | Vixen A | Beryllium | 1.72 |
| 1961–1963 | Taranaki | Vixen B | Beryllium | 17.6 |
Opposition to the tests grew throughout the 1950s. A poll in 1957 found that almost half the population was against them. [10]
Several books have been written about nuclear weapons testing in Australia. These include Britain, Australia and the Bomb , Maralinga: Australia's Nuclear Waste Cover-up and My Australian Story: Atomic Testing: The Diary of Anthony Brown, Woomera, 1953. In 2006 Wakefield Press published Beyond belief: the British bomb tests: Australia's veterans speak out by Roger Cross and veteran and whistleblower, Avon Hudson.
Operation Crossroads was a pair of nuclear weapon tests conducted by the United States at Bikini Atoll in mid-1946. They were the first nuclear weapon tests since Trinity in July 1945, and the first detonations of nuclear devices since the atomic bombing of Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. The purpose of the tests was to investigate the effect of nuclear weapons on warships.
Nuclear weapons tests are experiments carried out to determine the performance, yield, and effects of nuclear weapons. Testing nuclear weapons offers practical information about how the weapons function, how detonations are affected by different conditions, and how personnel, structures, and equipment are affected when subjected to nuclear explosions. However, nuclear testing has often been used as an indicator of scientific and military strength. Many tests have been overtly political in their intention; most nuclear weapons states publicly declared their nuclear status through a nuclear test.
Operation Grapple was a set of four series of British nuclear weapons tests of early atomic bombs and hydrogen bombs carried out in 1957 and 1958 at Malden Island and Kiritimati in the Gilbert and Ellice Islands in the Pacific Ocean as part of the British hydrogen bomb programme. Nine nuclear explosions were initiated, culminating in the United Kingdom becoming the third recognised possessor of thermonuclear weapons, and the restoration of the nuclear Special Relationship with the United States in the form of the 1958 US–UK Mutual Defence Agreement.
Maralinga, in the remote western areas of South Australia, was the site, measuring about 3,300 square kilometres (1,300 sq mi) in area, of British nuclear tests in the mid-1950s.
Operation Hurricane was the first test of a British atomic device. A plutonium implosion device was detonated on 3 October 1952 in Main Bay, Trimouille Island, in the Montebello Islands in Western Australia. With the success of Operation Hurricane, Britain became the third nuclear power, after the United States and the Soviet Union.
The Soviet atomic bomb project was the classified research and development program that was authorized by Joseph Stalin in the Soviet Union to develop nuclear weapons during and after World War II.
Emu Field is the site of Operation Totem, a pair of nuclear tests conducted by the British Government in South Australia during October 1953.
Between 1956 and 1963, the United Kingdom conducted seven nuclear tests at the Maralinga site in South Australia, part of the Woomera Prohibited Area about 800 kilometres (500 mi) north west of Adelaide. Two major test series were conducted: Operation Buffalo in 1956 and Operation Antler the following year. Approximate weapon yields ranged from 1 to 27 kilotons of TNT. The Maralinga site was also used for minor trials, tests of nuclear weapons components not involving nuclear explosions. Kittens were trials of neutron initiators; Rats and Tims measured how the fissile core of a nuclear weapon was compressed by the high explosive shock wave; and Vixens investigated the effects of fire or non-nuclear explosions on atomic weapons. The minor trials, numbering around 550, ultimately generated far more contamination than the major tests.
The Windscale fire of 10 October 1957 was the worst nuclear accident in the United Kingdom's history, and one of the worst in the world, ranked in severity at level 5 out of 7 on the International Nuclear Event Scale. The fire was in Unit 1 of the two-pile Windscale site on the north-west coast of England in Cumberland. The two graphite-moderated reactors, referred to at the time as "piles," had been built as part of the British post-war atomic bomb project. Windscale Pile No. 1 was operational in October 1950, followed by Pile No. 2 in June 1951.
The Maralinga Tjarutja, or Maralinga Tjarutja Council, is the corporation representing the traditional Anangu owners of the remote western areas of South Australia known as the Maralinga Tjarutja lands. The council was established by the Maralinga Tjarutja Land Rights Act 1984. The area is one of the four regions of South Australia classified as an Aboriginal Council (AC) and not incorporated within a local government area.
The McClelland Royal Commission or Royal Commission into British nuclear tests in Australia was an inquiry by the Australian government in 1984–1985 to investigate the conduct of the British in its use, with the then Australian government's permission, of Australian territory and soldiers for testing nuclear weapons. It was chaired by Jim McClelland.
Hedley Ralph Marston FRS FAA was an Australian biochemist who worked for the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO).
Operation Totem was a pair of British atmospheric nuclear tests which took place at Emu Field in South Australia in October 1953. They followed the Operation Hurricane test of the first British atomic bomb, which had taken place at the Montebello Islands a year previously. The main purpose of the trial was to determine the acceptable limit on the amount of plutonium-240 which could be present in a bomb.
An atomic veteran is a veteran who was exposed to ionizing radiation while present in the site of a nuclear explosion during active duty. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs defines an atomic veteran "who, as part of his or her military service: Participated in an above-ground nuclear test, 1945–1962; or was part of the U.S. military occupation forces in/around Hiroshima/Nagasaki before 1946; or was held as a POW in or near Hiroshima or Nagasaki ."
Operation Mosaic was a series of two British nuclear tests conducted in the Montebello Islands in Western Australia on 16 May and 19 June 1956. These tests followed the Operation Totem series and preceded the Operation Buffalo series. The second test in the series was the largest ever conducted in Australia.
Project GABRIEL was an investigation to gauge the impact of nuclear fallout resulting from nuclear warfare. The United States Atomic Energy Commission surmised that the radioactive isotope strontium-90 (Sr-90) presented the greatest hazard to life globally, which resulted in the commissioning of Project SUNSHINE: which sought to examine the levels of Sr-90 in human tissues and bones gathered from around the world.
The Vixen series of nuclear tests were all safety experiments, in which a bomb mechanism with a live core was subjected to abnormal conditions, such as fire, shock, and electrical malfunctions to determine whether nuclear criticality would occur. The result is no nuclear criticality, but the high explosives that triggered the fission bomb may explode, destroying the bomb and spreading the core material over a localized area.
Avon Hudson is a South Australian RAAF ex-serviceman, nuclear weapons testing whistle-blower and co-author of the 2005 book Beyond Belief which he wrote with academic and historian, Roger Cross. He has appeared in several documentary films about nuclear weapons testing in Australia.
Maralinga to Emu Road is a remote unsealed outback track that links Maralinga to Emu in the western region of South Australia. It was built by Len Beadell for the Weapons Research Establishment of Salisbury, South Australia in 1955.
