Britain, Australia and the Bomb Also by Lorna Arnold BRITAIN AND THE H-BOMB WINDSCALE 1957 Also by Mark Smith NATO ENLARGEMENT DURING THE COLD WAR Britain, Australia and the Bomb The Nuclear Tests and Their Aftermath Second Edition Lorna Arnold Official Historian and Mark Smith Lecturer, Department of Politics and International Relations University of Wales, Swansea Second edition © Lorna Arnold and Mark Smith 2006 First edition © MoD 1987 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 2nd edition 2006 978-1-4039-2101-7 This work is a revised edition of a Crown Copyright work that was authored by Lorna Arnold and published by HMSO in 1987 (‘The First Edition’).Those parts of the work that were first published in the First Edition remain wholly subject to Crown Copyright and the property of the Crown. All rights reserved.No reproduction,copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced,copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright,Designs and Patents Act 1988,or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency,90 Tottenham Court Road,London W1T 4LP. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The authors have asserted their rights to be identified as the authors of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2006 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Houndmills,Basingstoke,Hampshire RG21 6XS and 175 Fifth Avenue,New York,N.Y.10010 Companies and representatives throughout the world. PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave Macmillan division of St.Martin’s Press,LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. Macmillan® is a registered trademark in the United States,United Kingdom and other countries.Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European Union and other countries. ISBN 978-1-4039-2102-4 ISBN 978-0-230-62733-8 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9780230627338 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Arnold,Lorna. Britain,Australia and the bomb :the nuclear tests and their aftermath / Lorna Arnold and Mark Smith.– 2nd ed. p.cm. Rev.ed.of:A very special relationship.1987. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1.Nuclear weapons – Testing.2.Great Britain – Military relations – Australia.3.Australia – Military relations – Great Britain.I.Smith,Mark, 1965 July 1– II.Title. U264.A77 2006 355.8(cid:2)251190941—dc22 2006050312 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 Contents List of Tables, Figures and Maps vii List of Photographs viii Foreword ix Preface xi List of Abbreviations xiii 1 Atomic Policies and Policymakers 1 2 Why Australia? 17 3 Hurricane– 1952 29 4 Totem– 1953 49 5 A Pregnant Pause: 1953–56 73 6 Maralinga – A Permanent Proving Ground 87 7 Mosaic– 1956 106 8 Buffalo– 1956 138 9 ‘There Must be Further Trials to Come’: Weapons 172 Planning, 1956–57 10 Antlerand After 189 11 Kittens,RatsandVixens 215 12 The Maralinga Range after 1963 235 13 Health and Safety and the National Radiological 254 Protection Board Studies 14 In Retrospect 268 Appendix A Memorandum of Arrangements between 287 the United Kingdom and Australian Governments v vi Contents Appendix B Memorandum Respecting the Termination 291 of the Memorandum of Arrangements between the United Kingdom and Australian Governments of 7 March 1956, concerning the Atomic Weapons Proving Ground-Maralinga Notes 293 Bibliography 314 Index 317 List of Tables, Figures and Maps Tables 7.1 The six places in Australia with the highest fallout 135 reading after Mosaic 7.2 Doses of gamma radiation exposure at Port Hedland 136 and ICRP annual and lifetime limits 8.1 The AWTSC radiation doses and comparative 169 AIRAC doses for Buffalo 8.2 External radiation doses from Buffalofor 169 Coober Pedy and Ingomar 9.1 Four highest radiation values, and the revised 203 figures calculated by the Australian Ionizing Radiation Advisory Council in 1983, for Antler Figures 13.1 The distribution of radiation dosage as a percentage 263 of total doses among test participants Maps 1 Australia, showing the Monte Bello islands 19 2 The Monte Bello islands 31 3 The Emu/Maralinga area 51 4 Maralinga and Woomera prohibited areas 91 5 The Maralinga range 147 vii List of Photographs 1 Cable laying in the Monte Bellos. For Hurricanesome 150 miles of cable had to be laid between the islands. 2 Before Hurricane—Dr W. G. Penney confers with the Scientific Superintendent, Dr L. C. Tyte. 3 On board HMS Campaniaat Monte Bello. Right to left: L. C. Tyte, W.A. S. Butement (Chief Scientist, Commonwealth Department of Supply and Development), Captain A. B. Cole RN, Rear Admiral A. D. Torlesse, W. G. Penney, L.H.Martin (Melbourne University) O. M. Solandt (Chairman, Canadian Defence Research Board). 4 A re-entry party at Hurricane, wearing protective clothing. Light-coloured clothing was used for later trials to minimize heat stress. 5 At Emu Field––Sir William Penney with C. A. Adams (left) and E. Titterton (right). 6 The terrain at Emu Field. 7 Operation Hotbox—the aircrew and their Canberra at Totem. Right to left: Group Captain D. A. Wilson (observer), Wing Commander G.Dhenin (pilot) and Wing Commander E. W. Anderson (navigator). 8 Firing Control—Ieuan Maddock at Mosaic. 9 Maralinga—Eleven Mile Camp, the home of the Buffalo Indoctrinee Force. 10 The warhead for the ‘Marcoo’ test at the Buffaloseries being lowered into its pit. Uniquely at Maralinga, the test was conducted at ground level to provide information about cratering effects. 11–13 This dramatic ‘before, during and after’ sequence shows the effects of an atomic explosion on a Land Rover placed 600 yards from ground zero at the Buffalotrials. Photograph 11 was taken shortly before detonation; Photograph 12 by remote camera as the blast wave engulfs the vehicle; Photograph 13 shows the same jeep after the explosion. The experiment was part of the Target Response programme to assess the effects of nuclear explosions on military equipment. 14 Dummies were used to study the effects of atomic explosion on Servicemen and to determine the best methods of protection. The dummies used at Buffalowere well made and very life-like. Photographs 10–13 are reproduced by kind permission of The National Archives. viii Foreword Those of us who have sat at the controls of a V-bomber, ready to carry a British nuclear bomb to targets behind the Iron Curtain, had little insight at the time into the complexity and ingenuity that had made our independent deterrent possible. Lorna Arnold, assisted in this new edi- tion by Mark Smith, has brought us the technical, political and practical problems which faced the architects of Britain’s nuclear weapons pro- gramme. When US cooperation ceased in 1946, the postwar British gov- ernment might have decided to concentrate its meagre resources on the welfare state. That both the Attlee and Churchill governments pressed on, first with atomic and then with thermonuclear weapon develop- ments demonstrated the political importance attached to nuclear weapons and great power status at that time. This book tells the human story behind those decisions, and what that meant in terms of turning policy into a working device. The gen- erous cooperation from Australia harps back to an age when the dan- gers from atmospheric nuclear tests were less well understood. The Aboriginals also paid a particular price to their way of life. Nevertheless, it is a story of scientific achievement and organisational mastery. Arranging complex tests on the other side of the world, which involved thousands of people and new engineering and physics, was all done without e-mail, satellite communications or desktop comput- ers. Britain and Australia cooperated in an astonishingly successful project. The development of the thermonuclear H-bomb was done in a much shorter timescale than the United States or the Soviet Union had managed. This history appears at an important time in the continuing story of nuclear weapons. In the UK, discussion has started about the future of the British deterrent, which is now much smaller in number than dur- ing the Cold War. It is also less independent than the early days. There is less attachment to the arguments of the 1940s about world power sta- tus, but concerns remain about the continuing need for a deterrent against possible threats from emerging nuclear powers. States such as Iran, North Korea and others, which perhaps aspire to nuclear weapon status, face many of the hurdles which are detailed in these pages. Before commentators or politicians talk glibly about the easy development of nuclear weapons, they would do well to read this book. ix
Description: