Atlantic Flight from Friedrichshafen, Germany
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Britain's Pacific H-Bomb Tests
GRAPPLING WITH THE BOMB BRITAIN’S PACIFIC H-BOMB TESTS GRAPPLING WITH THE BOMB BRITAIN’S PACIFIC H-BOMB TESTS NIC MACLELLAN PACIFIC SERIES Published by ANU Press The Australian National University Acton ACT 2601, Australia Email: [email protected] This title is also available online at press.anu.edu.au National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry Creator: Maclellan, Nic, author. Title: Grappling with the bomb : Britain’s Pacific H-bomb tests / Nicholas Maclellan. ISBN: 9781760461379 (paperback) 9781760461386 (ebook) Subjects: Operation Grapple, Kiribati, 1956-1958. Nuclear weapons--Great Britain--Testing. Hydrogen bomb--Great Britain--Testing. Nuclear weapons--Testing--Oceania. Hydrogen bomb--Testing--Oceania. Nuclear weapons testing victims--Oceania. Pacific Islanders--Health and hygiene--Oceania. Nuclear explosions--Environmental aspects--Oceania. Nuclear weapons--Testing--Environmental aspects--Oceania. Great Britain--Military policy. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. Cover design and layout by ANU Press. Cover image: Adapted from photo of Grapple nuclear test. Source: Adi Sivo Ganilau. This edition © 2017 ANU Press Contents List of illustrations . vii Timeline and glossary . xi Maps . xxiii Introduction . 1 1 . The leader—Sir Winston Churchill . .19 2 . The survivors—Lemeyo Abon and Rinok Riklon . 39 3 . The fisherman—Matashichi Oishi . 55 4 . The Task Force Commander—Wilfred Oulton . 69 5 . The businessman—James Burns . 81 6 . The pacifist—Harold Steele . 91 Interlude—On radiation, safety and secrecy . 105 7 . The Chief Petty Officer—Ratu Inoke Bainimarama . -
The Involvement of the Royal New Zealand Navy 1957 and 1958
Enclosure 1 ~ THE INVOLVEMENT OF TH E ROYAL NEW ZEALAND NAVY IN THE BRITISH NUCLEAR TESTING PROGRAMMES OF 1957 AND 195 8 J A B Crawford, Research Officer (History) ~ ~ ~ t HEADQUARTERS NEW ZEALAND DEFENCE FORC E WELLINGTON, 1989 ~ ~ ~ ~ TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Glossary ii - iv Chapter I Introduction 1 - 16 Chapter II : The 1957 Test Series 17 - 48 Chapter III : The 1958 Test Series 49 - 58 Appendices : I The positions of HMNZS ROTOITI and PUKAKI 59 - 61 ~ during Operation Grapple Nuclear Test s II The time spent by HMNZS ROTOITI and 62 - 63 ' HMNZS PUKAKI at Christmas Island afte r the Grapple X Tes t III Map of Christmas Island 64 Bibliography 65 - 68 i ~ l ~ 1 1 GLOSSARY ~ Absorbed dose : Some of the energy of ionising radiation is transferred to the matter through which it passes . The absorbed dose is the amount of energy transferred to a unit mass of material (1 gray (q .v .) = 1 joule per kilogram) . Activation: Some of the neutrons released in fission are captured by atoms in the surrounding materials, e .g . soils, structural materials or atmospheric gases . Many of the resulting atoms are radioactive and are known as activation products . This process of producing radioactive materials is known as activation, producing 'induced radioactivity' (q .v .) . Air burst : A nuclear explosion at such a height that the expanding fireball does not touch the earth's surface . Alpha radiation : Some radioactive elements, particularly those with a high atomic number decay by emitting a positively charged particle, the ~ alpha particle, which is identical with the nucleus of a helium atom . -
Questions on the British H-Bomb by Robert Standish Norris June 22
NWD 92-5 Questions on the British H-Bomb by Robert Standish Norris June 22, 1992 Copyright © 1992 Natural Resources Defense Council 1350 New York Avenue NW Washington, DC 20005 Tel: 202-783-7800 FAX: 202-783-5917 1 Developing Fusion Weapons, 1954-19581 We know very little about the development of the British H-bomb. For example, we do not know which scientists should be credited with the crucial discoveries, the counterparts of Teller and Ulam in the U.S. and Sakharov, Zeldovich, and Khariton in the Soviet Union. We do not know when those conceptual advances occurred, or what the sequence of events were that led up to them. In the aftermath of the first Soviet explosion in August 1949, there was an intense, largely secret, discussion among U.S. scientists, politicians, and the military about whether to proceed with an H-bomb. The debate had a moral dimension -- whether an H-bomb should be built -- and a theoretical dimension whether it could be built. In late 1949 and early 1950, when these issues were being deliberated, the American scientists did not know how to make an H-bomb. All agreed the effort would take a great amount of resources and money. After the decision was announced to develop an H-bomb by President Truman on 31 January 1950, it would be almost a year before Teller and Ulam figured out the conceptual solution, and another twenty-two months before it was tested. We have no sense of these dynamics in the British case. Were there similar discussions and differences of opinion? The British benefited of course, as did the Soviets, in knowing that an H-bomb was possible after the American success on 31 October 1952. -
Britain's Pacific H-Bomb Tests
11 The pilot—Geoffrey Dhenin Geoffrey Dhenin (left) and crew before their flight to gather samples after the 1953 Totem 1 test Source: Imperial War Museum . 167 GRAPPLING WITH THE BOMB The Royal Air Force (RAF) decided Britain’s first operational atomic weapons, dubbed ‘Blue Danube’, were too small. The 1953 Totem tests in Australia had only shown an explosive yield of 8–10 kilotons, and military chiefs wanted more: A working party on the operational use of atomic weapons decided the Blue Danube was not powerful enough to destroy primary targets in the USSR, such as airfields or ports, with a single bomb. Therefore the working party stated ‘the possession of a bomb in the 5 or 10-megaton range offers this possibility and would go a long way towards overcoming the need for improved terminal accuracy. Hydrogen bomb to give a yield of 5–10 megatons would weigh from 9,000–12,000 pounds and could be carried by the V-class bombers’.1 Military leaders thus proposed that Britain’s main nuclear strike force should be larger Valiant bomber aircraft, which could reach distant targets. But before the development of a Valiant force to deliver the hydrogen bomb, aircrew used other planes during the Australian nuclear testing program between 1952 and 1957. The first British atomic tests conducted on the Australian mainland were codenamed Totem 1 and Totem 2 in October 1953. The RAF, the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) and the US Air Force all deployed aircraft to Emu Field, in the desert of South Australia, to monitor the tests and collect samples of radioactivity from the mushroom cloud.