British Nuclear Test "Hurricane"

Great Britan's first nuclear weapons test, code named "Hurricane". This clip did have the "Scorpions" song "Rock my like a Hurricane", but youtube made me take it off.

Hurricane was the culmination of many years of nuclear research conducted by Great Britain, the start of which dated back to 1940 when Otto Frisch and Rudolf Peierls made the first theoretically sound critical mass calculations. The site chosen for the test was at the Monte Bello Islands off the West Coast of Australia. In September 1950, Australian Prime Minister Robert Menzies made an agreement with Great Britain to use Australia as a nuclear test site in exchange for nuclear technology.

The Hurricane device was very similar to the U.S. Mk-3 "Fatman" plutonium implosion bomb. Since the Windscale nuclear plant was unable to manufacture the necessary plutonium needed by August 1, 1952 for the test, some Canadian plutonium was also used in the core of the atomic device. The device used a levitated pit, which not only increased the power of the bomb, but also served as a safety precaution as the core could be inserted into the device shortly before the firing. At Woolwich the high explosives assembly was prepared for the implosion device.

It was decided to fire the bomb inside the hull of the River-class frigate HMS Plym. This was done so that the effects of a nuclear detonation on board a ship could be understood, simulating the scenario of a nuclear device being smuggled into a harbor and detonated. While a tower detonation would be more adequate for the collection of diagnostic data, a ship detonation was used because it presented a more 'realistic' option in terms of information gathered for civil defense purposes.

The atomic device, minus the plutonium core, was loaded on the HMS Plym at Sheerness dockyard prior to its ten thousand mile voyage. The escort carrier HMS Campania, the flagship of the convey, set sail from Portsmouth bound for the Monte Bello Islands on June 10, 1952. Lead by Captain A.D. Torlesse, the expedition to test Britain's first atomic device consisted of five ships and 1,500 personnel.

Concern arose about the possible crash of the fissile core transport aircraft and a peculiar contingency plan was formulated. The core would be contained in a case that would float in water, in the event of a crash into the sea. Prior to bailing out of the aircraft, one of the crew members would collect the case and parachute to the ocean holding it at all times. The fissile core was safely delivered to the Monte Bello Islands on September 15, 1952.

The day before the shot one remaining scientist on board the HMS Plym switched on and armed the firing circuits. He then delivered a master switch to the control bunker where the firing circuit was completed.

Hurricane was fired in the lagoon 400 yards off Trimouille Island at 59:24 on October 3, 1952 (GMT). The explosion had a yield of 25 kilotons and vaporized the HMS Plym. The device itself was located 8 feet under the water line and 40 feet above the ocean floor. The resulting explosion left a crater on the lagoon seabed 20 feet deep and 1,000 feet across.

Small fires were caused by the explosion on Trimouille Island. The cloud from the explosion rose to an altitude of 15,000 feet. This was a low altitude for such a test mainly due to the dry air at the time and the presence of a strong inversion layer at that altitude. The blast was observed by men stationed at the Control Point on Hermite Island and from the HMS Campania, which had put to sea for the shot. William Penney observed the explosion from the HMS Campania.

Heavy contamination was recorded north of the blast zone by the first survey teams that re-entered the site shortly after the blast to collect instruments. The southerly Leeuwin current would carry much of the fallout back toward the western Australian coast. One of the landing craft was sunk due to contamination and 30 barrels of radioactive waste collected during clean up operations was dumped into the sea.

In November 1953, the first nuclear weapon entered the British stockpile. The Blue Danube plutonium bomb was based mainly on the Hurricane design and was technically similar to the U.S. Mk-4. The weapon used a 60 inch, 32 lens implosion system and a levitated core suspended within a hollow uranium tamper.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Great
• Britan
• British
• atomic
• test
• bomb
• nuclear

[paulhunter123]

where did this take place?

[jeromeyward]

Northwestern Australia somewhere.

[superdan1875]

yeh the americans decided to betray us and not share the tech, even though we helped them hugely on building their stupid bomb.

[flangelet]

American is the PRIMARY enemy of the UK.

The usa 'talks' friendship while behind the scenes acting as an enemy of the UK &, most importantly, our interests.

Many times in the 20th century, america commited acts "in the usa's interest" which were actually designed to foil, degrade, damage & belittle the UK.

We should damage them as much as possible while they're reeling from this finacial catastrophe of their own making. Knife 'em in the face while they're down. They did it to us during WWII.

[TheCGIMaster]

Can everyone just stfu about who has the better country/nukes and just watch the damn video?

[WORLD8NSH5KNIGHT1]

@theclashrock09

150 is hardly 'a few'

[Dallas8844]

@theclashrock09 Nuclear weapons cannot have a "failure" and explode, it's simply not possible due to their design. They aren't like normal bombs. Everything has to go perfectly or they will not detonate, simple as that.

[theclashrock09]

@winchuni22 Actually the UK only have a few Nuclear Warheads. The reason they have so few is because if one of the subs has a failure and the bomb somehow explodes.......most of the UK will be irradiated.

The only reason we have Nukes is because the rest of Europe, might be big, but they are weak.

Can you believe such a small landmass could raise such a powerful army?.......

Thats why we need Nukes, we probably wont use them though.

[BountyHunterRu]

@jeromeyward

Montebello Island

[winchuni22]

@superdan1875

We have nuclear war heads don't you worry. They're on our nuclear subs which are due to an upgrade. None of the serious political powers, or even midium players, have given up their's, only reduced the no.

[superdan1875]

@rag5206

I don't think the UK has the finances for such ventures anymore as she is spending an awful lot of time and money trying to keep Europe and the USA happy.

[rag5206]

@superdan1875 Thank u for the honest answer. I still don't know why the UK is giving India 2 billion in Aid, India has 96 billionaires UK has 24. India has a fantastic space program huge armaments program & is 4th largest economy while its kids starve? UK does some stupid things & shouldn't have left Woomera Rocket program both of our countries would have made lots of money & helped science & joint national pride. Cheers mate

[superdan1875]

@rag5206

Yeah, our government did shit on the former servicemen

Maybe we did poison your country but it's not like Britain was in a position to test nuclear weapons at home!

[rag5206]

@Saxonsoldiers If Hitler wanted to defeat UK why did he stop his Panzer armies at Dunkirk? Deception was used by both sides in WW2 remember the nazi's thought D Day Landings were'nt the REAL thing. Paton's fake army had fake radio traffic, insignia, rubber tanks/planes. Nazi fleet was tiny compared with British they couldn't invade UK without control of Skies either. Booking manors was smart Psyops by nazi's the same as British secret service creating large fake anti war party fooled Rudolf Hess