Discover

:''For the Allied air forces show of force over Germany during World War II see Operation Hurricane (1944)''

'Operation Hurricane' was the test of the first British atomic bomb on 3 October 1952. A plutonium implosion bomb was detonated off the Montebello Islands, Western Australia
The weapon was a close copy of the Fat Man (Nagasaki) weapon, although it was set up prior to the detonation in a levitated pit. Although increasing the power of the bomb, this was actually done as a safety measure. There were concerns that without the gap between the tamper and the pit, a criticality accident could occur. The bomb used plutonium produced mainly at Windscale (now Sellafield) in Cumbria with a low Pu-240 content since hurried production led to short irradiation times. However, Windscale could not quite meet the 1 August 1952 deadline for manufacturing the inner core and the device also used some Canadian-supplied plutonium.
To test the effects of a ship-smuggled bomb (a threat of great concern to the British at the time), Hurricane was exploded inside the hull of HMS ''Plym'' (a 1,370-ton River class frigate) which was anchored in 12 m of water 350 m offshore. The explosion occurred 2.7 m below the water line, and left a saucer-shaped crater on the seabed 6 m deep and 300 m across.

Contents

Specifics

External links

Further reading

Specifics

★ 'Time': 00:00 on 3 October 1952 (GMT), 08:00 on 3 October 1952 (WAST)

★ 'Location': Off Trimouille Island, one of the Montebello Islands, Western Australia, Australia, 20°25′S, 115°33′E

★ 'Test Height and Type': Ship, -2.7 m

★ 'Yield': 25kt

External links

★ AWE Page devoted to Operation Hurricane

★ British nuclear weapons testing in Australia

★ Ministry of Supply made documentary
hosted by Channel 4, requires broadband connection to view

★ Video of the 'Hurricane Nuclear Test'

Further reading

★ Bird, Peter (1989) ''Operation hurricane'' Worcester: Square One Publications. ISBN 187201710X First published: 1953.