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Second World War ended abruptly in 1945 with two nuclear attacks on Japanese
cities. The United Kingdom had been researching nuclear weapons since
the late 1940s, but the demands of the war had kept their research programme
lagging behind more immediate priorities. Immediately after the War, the
US intended to make the most of its monopoly on nuclear weapons, and refused
to co-operate with its wartime allies in nuclear research. In 1947, the
British government decided to initiate an independent programme.
In 1949, with the chill of
the Cold War descending across Europe, the USSR tested a nuclear weapon
and the arms race was on. In September 1950, British Prime Minister
Clement Atlee wrote to Australian PM Robert Menzies, who embraced the
chance for Australia to be used as a nuclear test site by the British
military. The Monte-Bello Islands, off the north-west coast of Western
Australia were chosen as the site of the first tests.
Operation
Hurricane
 And
so it was that on October 3 1952, the 1000 tonne warship HMS Plym came
to be anchored off Trimouille Island with a 25 kilotonne nuclear weapon
in the hold. At 0800 hours local time, the ship was blown away in 'a
vast upheaval of water rising rapidly'1
and the British military at last had access to its own nuclear capability.
The survey teams moved into the contaminated zone to recover their measuring
devices. They recorded heavy contamination to the north of the blast
zone, where most of the fallout was occurring. Unknown to the test personnel,
the southerly Leeuwin current would wash the fallout back toward the
Western Australian coast.
The decontamination procedure
was a black comedy, with a contaminated landing ship sunk and staff
accidentally exposed to radiation in the cleanup of the ships. Satisfied
nonetheless, the team set sail for Fremantle, pausing to dump at least
30 barrels of radioactive waste into the sea.
A year later, the tests continued
at Emu Field, in South Australia. The British Government exploded two
smaller bombs in 1953, in operation 'Totem.' Then it was decided to
return to Western Australia.
Operation
Mosaic
 On
16 May 1956, another poisoned mushroom cloud rose into the sky over
the Monte Bellos, with the 15 kilotonne 'Mosaic G1' test. The destroyer
HMS Diana was standing by, sealed as best as possible, with the mission
of sailing into the fallout zone to test the effects of a nuclear attack
on naval operations. On June 19, 1956 the largest test shot so far -
60kilotonnes - was fired from Alpha Island. Over 3,200 kilometres to
the east, radioactive iodine concentrations silently increased a hundredfold
at one monitoring station.2
Again the HMS Diana sailed into the fallout, requiring extensive decontamination.
She was later refused entry into the port of Fremantle on account of
her role in the tests.
Following the Mosaic shots,
the Monte Bellos were left in silence, burned with a poison fire which
can still be detected nearly 50 years later.
Refining
Armageddon
The British then moved to Maralinga in South Australia between September
27, 1956 and October 9, 1957, and unleashed an orgy of tests on the
sacred ground known to the Pitjantjatjara people as the "Field
of Thunder". This time, military personnel were deliberately exposed
to test the effects of radiation on live subjects. The Traditional Owners
were left inside the test areas and many were horribly injured by the
black rain that brought the radiation into their camp grounds. But the
British military was more than satisfied with its genocidal creation.
'We have made a successful
start. When the [nuclear] tests are completed, as they soon will be,
we shall be in the same position as the United States or Soviet Russia.
We shall have made and tested the massive weapons. It will be possible
then to discuss on equal terms.'
U.K. Prime
Minister Harold Macmillan, 1957.
The
Islands
The Monte Bello Islands today are listed as a biodiversity refuge, a
cluster of 200 or so limestone outposts 80km from Cape Preston on mainland
Western Australia. The largest island is Hermite, only 10km2;
other major islands include Trimouille, North West and Alpha Islands.
Largely isolated from the mainland, which has been ravaged by introduced
species for the past 200 years, the islands are today are preferred
nesting grounds for Hawksbill Turtles and Green Turtles.3
The
Leeuwin Current
By an accident of geography, the west coast of Australia features a
southerly ocean current, not a northerly current indicated on some maps.
Not formally discovered until 1980, the Leeuwin Current runs past Fremantle,
around Cape Leeuwin and out toward the Great Australian Bight, and is
strongest in winter. At the time of the nuclear tests it was assumed
that the heaviest fallout would be carried north and conveniently vanish
from the biosphere. It was also assumed that waste from the tests could
be safely disposed of in the sea, and an unknown quantity of radioactive
solids and liquids were tipped over the side during both testing campaigns.
We can only hope the Leeuwin Current leaves these Cold War memories
undisturbed in the sediments of the Monte Bellos.
References
1.
This article draws heavily on Ray Acaster's article "British Nuclear
Testing at the Monte Bello Islands" Printed in "Early Days",
Journal and Proceedings of the Royal WA Historical Society (Inc.) Volume
11, Part 1 1995
2.
SEA-US
3.
'Refugia for Biological Diversity in Arid and Semi-arid Australia'
http://www.environment.gov.au/life/general_info/biodivser_4/bio102.html
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E Y E W I T
N E S S
"At
the end of the countdown, there was a blinding electric blue light,
of such an intensity I had not seen before or ever since. I pressed
my hands hard to my eyes, then, realised my hands were covering my eyes.
This terrific light power, or rays, were actually passing through the
tarpaulin, through the towel, and through my head and body, for what
seemed ten to twelve seconds, it may have been longer. After that, the
pressure wave, which gave a feeling such as when one is deep underwater.
This was then followed by a sort of vacuum suction wave, to give a feeling
of one's whole body billowing out like a balloon."
Observer,
Mosaic G1
Monte Bello Islands, 16 May 1956.
Monte
Bello Islands Tests
Hurricane
Monte Bello (off Trimouille Is)
3 Oct 1952
25kt Ocean surface blast
Mosaic G1
Monte Bello (off Trimouille Is)
16 May 1956
15kt Tower blast
Mosaic G2
Monte Bello (off Alpha Is)
19 June 1956
60kt Tower blast
British Nuclear Testing
First nuclear test:
3 October 1952,
Monte Bello Islands, Australia.
Last nuclear
test:
26 November 1991,
U.S. National Test Site, Nevada.
How many tests:
45 tests (21 atmospheric,
24 underground).
Present nuclear test site:
U.S. National Test Site, Nevada.
Past nuclear
test sites:
Monte Bello Islands, Australia;
Emu Field, Australia;
Maralinga Test Ranges, Australia;
Christmas Island, Pacific;
Malden Island, Pacific
Source:
Greenpeace
Nuclear Weapons Testing Countries
April 1996
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