Operation Hurricane

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

For the Canadian Forces maintenance mission in the Arctic see Operation Hurricane (Canada)

The explosion cloud resulting from the Operation Hurricane detonation

Operation Hurricane was the test of the first British atomic device on 3 October 1952. A plutonium implosion device was detonated in the lagoon between the Montebello Islands, Western Australia.

The weapon was a close copy of the Fat Man (Nagasaki) weapon, although the design was modified to use a levitated pit. This increased the power of the bomb, but 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.

The test was front page news in Western Australia

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 off Trimouille Island. 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.

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

Further reading

• Bird, Peter (1989) Operation hurricane Worcester: Square One Publications. ISBN 1-872017-10-X First published: 1953.

External links

• AWE Page devoted to Operation Hurricane^{[dead link]}
• British nuclear weapons testing in Australia^{[dead link]}
• Ministry of Supply made documentary
• Atomic Forum^{[dead link]}
• Britain's Nuclear Weapons-From MAUD to Hurricane
• Video of the Hurricane Nuclear Test hosted by Channel 4, requires broadband connection to view
• Operation Hurricane by National Archives of Australia - Vimeo

Coordinates: 20°25′S 115°33′E / 20.417°S 115.55°E / -20.417; 115.55