The

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

conducted 12 major

nuclear weapons test Nuclear weapons tests are experiments carried out to determine nuclear weapons' effectiveness, yield, and explosive capability. Testing nuclear weapons offers practical information about how the weapons function, how detonations are affected by ...

s in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

between 1952 and 1957. These explosions occurred at the

Montebello Islands The Montebello Islands, also rendered as the Monte Bello Islands, are an archipelago of around 174 small islands (about 92 of which are named) lying north of Barrow Island (Western Australia), Barrow Island and off the Pilbara region of We ...

Emu Field Emu Field is located in the desert of South Australia, at (ground zero Totem I test). Variously known as Emu Field, Emu Junction or Emu, it was the site of the Operation Totem pair of nuclear tests conducted by the British government in Octobe ...

and

Maralinga Maralinga, in the remote western areas of South Australia, was the site, measuring about in area, of British nuclear tests in the mid-1950s. In January 1985 native title was granted to the Maralinga Tjarutja, a southern Pitjantjatjara Aborigi ...

Sites

The British conducted testing in the Pacific Ocean at

Malden Island Malden Island, sometimes called Independence Island in the 19th century, is a low, arid, uninhabited atoll in the central Pacific Ocean, about in area. It is one of the Line Islands belonging to the Republic of Kiribati. The lagoon is entir ...

and

Kiritimati Kiritimati (also known as Christmas Island) is a Pacific Ocean atoll in the northern Line Islands. It is part of the Republic of Kiribati. The name is derived from the English word "Christmas" written in Gilbertese according to its phonology, ...

known at the time as Christmas Island (not to be confused with

Christmas Island Christmas Island, officially the Territory of Christmas Island, is an Australian external territory comprising the island of the same name. It is located in the Indian Ocean, around south of Java and Sumatra and around north-west of the ...

in the Indian Ocean) between 1957 and 1958. These were airbursts mostly occurring over water or suspended a few hundred metres above the ground by balloon. In Australia there were three sites. Testing was carried out between 1952 and 1957 and was mostly done at the surface. A few hundred smaller scale tests were conducted at both Emu Field and Maralinga between 1953 and 1963.

Monte Bello Islands

Two separate atomic test projects occurred at the islands, the first being

Operation Hurricane Operation Hurricane was the first test of a Nuclear weapons of the United Kingdom, British atomic device. A plutonium Nuclear weapon design#Implosion-type weapon, implosion device was detonated on 3 October 1952 in Main Bay, Trimouille Island ...

and the second being

Operation Mosaic Operation Mosaic was a series of two British nuclear tests conducted in the Monte Bello 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 sec ...

. 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.

Emu Field

The atomic tests at Emu Field in 1953 were known as

Operation Totem 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 Montebell ...

. The test site of Emu Field was abandoned just hours after the second and final test, Totem 2.

Maralinga

A testing site at Maralinga was established in 1955, close to a siding along the

Trans-Australian Railway The Trans-Australian Railway, opened in 1917, runs from Port Augusta in South Australia to Kalgoorlie in Western Australia, crossing the Nullarbor Plain in the process. As the only rail freight corridor between Western Australia and the easter ...

. 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. In 1952, the

Liberal Government Liberal government may refer to: Australia In Australian politics, a Liberal government may refer to the following governments administered by the Liberal Party of Australia: * Menzies Government (1949–66), several Australian ministries under S ...

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. 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. According to Liz Tynan from

James Cook University James Cook University (JCU) is a public university in North Queensland, Australia. The second oldest university in Queensland, JCU is a teaching and research institution. The university's main campuses are located in the tropical cities of Cairn ...

, 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 Avon Hudson (born 1937) 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 documen ...

, an

atomic veteran An atomic veteran is a veteran who was exposed to ionizing radiation while present in the site of a nuclear explosion during their active duty. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs defines an atomic veteran "who, as part of his or her military ...

who participated as an Australian serviceman during the later stage Minor Trials became a prominent

whistleblower A whistleblower (also written as whistle-blower or whistle blower) is a person, often an employee, who reveals information about activity within a private or public organization that is deemed illegal, immoral, illicit, unsafe or fraudulent. Whi ...

. Some resourceful investigative journalists emerged and political scrutiny became more intense. In June 1993, ''

New Scientist ''New Scientist'' is a magazine covering all aspects of science and technology. Based in London, it publishes weekly English-language editions in the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia. An editorially separate organisation publishe ...

'' journalist Ian Anderson wrote an article entitled "Britain's dirty deeds at Maralinga" and several related articles.

Minor Trials

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.

Opposition

Opposition to the tests grew throughout the 1950s. A poll in 1957 found that almost half the population was against them.Australian Government
A toxic legacy: British nuclear weapons testing in Australia

Documentation

Several books have been written about nuclear weapons testing in Australia. These include ''

Britain, Australia and the Bomb ''Britain, Australia and the Bomb: the Nuclear Tests and Their Aftermath'' is a 2006 book by Lorna Arnold and Mark Smith. It is the second edition of an official history first published in 1987 by HMSO under another title: ''A Very Special Relatio ...

'', '' Maralinga: Australia's Nuclear Waste Cover-up'' and ''

My Australian Story ''My Australian Story'' is a series of historical novels for older children published by Scholastic Australia which was inspired by ''Dear America''. Each book is written in the form of a fictional diary of a young person living during an import ...

: 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,

References

External links

Australian government database of nuclear explosions and tests
*

Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency The Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA) is a regulatory agency under the national Commonwealth government of Australia that aims to protect Australian citizens from both ionising and non-ionising radiation. ARPAN ...

(ARPANSA) report at Nuclear Files ( ARPANSA have no longer hosted
copy
of their own repor
since 2013

Australia's program of testing for Strontium 90, between 1957 and 1978, samples of children's bones taken at autopsy

Ionising Radiation and Health
{{Australian anti-nuclear, state=collapsed Environmental issues in Australia Environmental disasters in Australia Australia–United Kingdom relations