Emu Field
 
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Location of Emu Field in South Australia |
Emu Field is a former nuclear weapons test site in the Australian state of South Australia . British nuclear weapons were tested here in October 1953 as part of Operation Totem .
Nuclear weapons tests
The United Kingdom carried out its first nuclear weapon explosion on October 3, 1952 as part of the so-called Operation Hurricane on the Montebello Islands off the west coast of Australia. The Australian government under Prime Minister Robert Menzies provided the British government under Prime Minister Winston Churchill with a test site in South Australia for further tests . The test site consisted of a sandstone plateau in the Great Victoria Desert . As part of Operation Totem , two nuclear tests were carried out there with plutonium bombs, each of which was mounted on a tower near the surface of the earth. On October 15, 1953, Totem 1 exploded with an explosive force of 10 kt ( 28 ° 42 ′ S , 132 ° 22 ′ E ) and led to a 4,500 m high cloud, the radioactive fallout of which fell in the area and some small human settlements contaminated. The cloud drifted eastwards and reached the Australian east coast at Townsville 3 days later . Three days later, Totem 2 exploded with an explosive force of 8 kt ( 28 ° 43 ′ S , 132 ° 23 ′ E ). The resulting 8,500 m high cloud took the same route and could be followed 500 km further. After the two explosions, Emu Field was abandoned as a test site. Further British nuclear tests in Australia took place again on the Montebello Islands and on the test site in Maralinga (also South Australia ).
In 1985 a British commission investigated the consequences of the British nuclear tests in Australia. In the final report, the Commission noted that wind conditions at the time of the explosion of Totem 1 could have foreseen that there would be unacceptably wide fallout. The information of the population in the affected areas was not sufficient. Members of the Aborigines were particularly affected. At least 45 Aborigine members in Wallatina had shown signs of acute radiation sickness , the consequences of which about half died later. Similar effects could also be observed in other Aboriginal settlements.
British nuclear tests on Australian territory lasted until 1963 when they were discontinued.
Individual evidence
- ^ A b c Emu Field, Australia Nuclear Weapons. (PDF) International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW), accessed on January 5, 2017 .
- ^ Wm. Robert Johnston: Database of nuclear tests, United Kingdom. June 11, 2009, accessed January 5, 2017 .
Coordinates: 28 ° 41 ′ 54 ″ S , 132 ° 22 ′ 17 ″ E