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 355.8Ј251190941—dc22 2006050312 10987654321 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 Antler and After 189 11 Kittens, Rats and Vixens 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 Buffalo for 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 Hurricane some 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 Campania at 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 Buffalo series 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 Buffalo trials. 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 Buffalo were 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 edition by Mark Smith, has brought us the technical, political and practical problems which faced the architects of Britain’s nuclear weapons programme. 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 during 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 status, 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 x Foreword

The determination of politicians, scientists, military and officials in the immediate postwar years made it possible for Britain to have an independent nuclear deterrent. I have no doubt that it contributed to the strategic uncertainty, which kept a nuclear war at bay through the Cold War. This book is a fitting tribute to them.

Air Marshal the Lord Garden KCB Preface

This book recalls a unique and probably unrepeatable fifteen-year partnership, of historic importance to both Australia and Britain. Between 1952 and 1957 British scientists and engineers, thanks to extraordinary Australian generosity, carried out twelve atmospheric atomic explosions on Australian territory, with invaluable help from the host nation. After these trials ended in 1957, smaller weapons experi- ments continued until 1962. These Australian trials enabled Britain to develop atomic bombs. Though they did not include hydrogen bomb tests, they also played an essential part in the development of the British megaton devices tested at Christmas Island in 1957–8. Between 1945 and 1963 (the year of the Partial Test Ban Treaty) the US and the Soviet Union conducted hundreds of atmospheric nuclear tests, as the nuclear arms race began. Some trials were very large, releasing huge quantities of radioactivity into the environment. In this context, the much smaller British programme (21 tests in all) looks insignificant. But it was highly effective in establishing Britain as a nuclear power and securing the Anglo-American nuclear relationship, which for over 40 years has been at the core of British foreign and defence policy. This could not have come to pass without indispensable Australian aid, which was so freely given. This story should not be forgotten. Why a new edition of a book published in 1987, and out of print for many years? There are two reasons. First, the subject matter is still of considerable interest. Controversies sur- rounding it recurrently appear in the media, and in political discourse in Australia and the UK. However, since 1987 no other book on the subject has appeared. Second, new information has appeared, in both Australia and the UK, enabling the story to be brought up to date. Therefore, it is now opportune to review and update the story. We are now able to follow through the story of the Maralinga Range after 1987, particularly the clean-up of the range. Moreover, further epidemiologi- cal studies have been undertaken and published on the health of test participants. Finally, a greater range of declassified material is now available compared to 1987, which makes possible some amplification of some scientific and technical content. This combination of factors meant that a second edition was both necessary and desirable. A central part in making this possible was

xi xii Preface played by Professor John Simpson OBE, of the Mountbatten Centre for International Studies (MCIS) at the University of Southampton, who has over forty years’ experience of researching British nuclear history. After consultations with the Ministry of Defence, owners of the copyright to the original edition, it was decided to conduct the research for the new edition at MCIS, with John Simpson acting as supervisor and peer reviewer for the new material. MCIS was an especially congenial and appropriate home, since it is also running a major research project on British nuclear history 1952–73, funded by the AHRC. Some parts of the story did not require rewriting. Others did. Some have been augmented by new material which we felt would amplify and enrich the existing text. In particular, the release of official documents since 1987 has enabled us to explain better the interrelationship of cer- tain Australian and Christmas Island tests, and present an outline of the 1952–8 British tests as a coherent programme. Consequently, the technical and strategic purpose of each test is now discussed in more detail, and a short chapter on the Christmas Island thermonuclear tests in Operation Grapple has been added. The recent reports on the effects of testing on participants and on the environment that have been released in the UK and Australia are also discussed in additional chapters. The bibliography and the references have also been brought up to date. We hope that this new edition will throw light on a history about which little published information has been available, but which has been the subject of much myth, misinformation and misinterpretation.

***

Our thanks are due to all those who have helped us in preparation of this new edition: John Baylis, Brian Jamison, Ken Johnston, Peter Jones, Gerry Kendall, Glynn Libberton, Chris Maddock, Mike McTaggart, Richard Moore, Kate Pyne and John Simpson. List of Abbreviations

AAEC Australian Atomic Energy Commission ACAE The Anderson Committee AE(O) Atomic Energy Organization AERE Atomic Energy Research Establishment AHPR Australian health physics representative AIRAC Australian Ionizing Radiation Advisory Council ANU Australian National University ARC Agricultural Research Council ARDU Australian Radiation Detection Unit ARL Australian Radiation Laboratory ASIO Australian Security Intelligence Organization AWTC Atomic Weapons Tests Committee AWTSC Atomic Weapons Tests Safety Committee BNTVA British Nuclear Test Veterans Association CAE Controller, Atomic Energy CAW Controller of Atomic Weapons CBL convective boundary layer CDEE Chemical Defence Experimental Establishment CEA Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique CND Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament CPAE Controller of Production (Atomic Energy) CSAR Chief Superintendent Armaments Research CSHER Chief Superintendent High Explosives Research CSIRO Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization CXRL Commonwealth X-Ray and Radium Laboratory DAWRE Director Atomic Weapons Research Establishment DGAW Director General of Atomic Weapons DPC Defence Policy Committee DRPC Defence Research Policy Committee GHD Gutteridge, Haskins and Davey HER High Explosives Research ICBM intercontinental ballistic missile ICRP International Commission on Radiological Protection IF Indoctrinee Force ISV in situ vitrification

xiii xiv List of Abbreviations

LRWE Long Range Weapons Establishment MARSU Maralinga Range Support Unit MARTAC Maralinga Rehabilitation Technical Advisory Committee MBWP Monte Bello Working Party MEP Maralinga Experimental Programme MM multiple myeloma MoD Ministry of Defence MPD maximum permissible dose MPL maximum permissible levels MRC Medical Research Council NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organization NRAC National Radiation Advisory Committee NRPB National Radiological Protection Board NZNTVA New Zealand Nuclear Test Veterans Association OAW Operational Use of Atomic Weapons PIPPA plutonium-producing power reactor PTBT Partial Test Ban Treaty RAAF Royal Australian Air Force RAF Royal Air Force RAN Royal Australian Navy RDU radiation detection unit RE Royal Engineers R-EVCA Radiation-Exposed Veterans Compensation Act RES reticuloendothelial system RN Royal Navy SAGW surface-to-air guided missile SMR standard mortality rate SRCA Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Act TAG Technical Assessment Group UK United Kingdom UKAEA UK Atomic Energy Authority UKMOSS(A) United Kingdom Ministry of Supply Staff UNSCEAR United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation US United States USAEC United States Atomic Energy Commission USAF United States Air Force VEA Veterans Entitlement Act