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Operation Hurricane
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- 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 Monte Bello 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.
- Time: 00:00 on 3 October 1952 (GMT), 08:00 on 3 October 1952 (WAST)
- Location: Off Trimouille Island, one of the Monte Bello Islands, Western Australia, Australia, 20°25′S, 115°33′E
- Test Height and Type: Ship, -2.7 m
- Yield: 25kt
- 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