Britain's Nuclear Weapons - From MAUD to Hurricane Britain's Nuclear Weapons From MAUD to Hurricane We have made a successful start. When the [nuclear] tests are completed, as they soon will be, we shall be in the same position as the United States or Soviet Russia. We shall have made and tested the massive weapons. It will be possible then to discuss on equal terms. U.K. Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, 1957 Last changed 4 July 2007 Britain was the first country to seriously study the feasibility of nuclear weapons, and made a number of critical conceptual breakthroughs. The first theoretically sound critical mass calculation was made in England by Otto Frisch and Rudolf Peierls in Feb. 1940. Inspired by this finding the MAUD Committee (a code name chosen from the first name of one member's nanny) was founded. Headed by Sir Henry Tizard, from 10 April 1940 to 15 July 1941, this committee worked out the basic principles of both fission bomb design and uranium enrichment by gaseous diffusion. The work done by the MAUD Committee was instrumental in alerting the U.S.

(and through espionage, the USSR) to the feasibility of fission weapons in WWII. A high level of cooperation between Britain, the U.S., and Canada continued through the war, formalized by the 1943 Quebec Agreement. Britain sent the "British Mission", a team of first rank scientists to work at Los Alamos. Among the scientists who made this journey were the pioneer of shock wave physics Geoffrey I. Taylor and a protege - William G. Penney. The mission made major contributions to the Manhattan Project, and provided the nucleus for British post-war atomic weapons development effort. Immediately after World War II, on 29 August 1945, the new Labor government headed by Prime Minister Clement Attlee convened a organized a secret Cabinet committee on atomic energy to establish nuclear policy. This committee, called GEN.75, was a subset of the full Cabinet and was termed the "Atom Bomb Committee" by Attlee. Later on an even smaller secret group of ministers known as GEN.163, which was a subset of GEN.75, made key decisions relating to the atomic bomb program.

An advisory group, called the Advisory Committee on Atomic Energy (ACAE) was also set up and on 18 December 1945 PM Attlee reconvened Gen.75 to consider this group's report. The initial step of building one or more nuclear reactors was adopted. Attlee appointed a team of three senior leaders of the British atomic energy program in late January 1946. To direct the British effort in atomic energy Lord Portal (Air Marshal Viscount Portal of Hungerford) was made Controller of Production, Atomic Energy (CPAE, after 1950 Controller, Atomic Energy or CAE). Physicist Sir John Crockcroft was named Director of the Atomic Energy Research Establishment (AERE), and Christopher Hinton (a senior ICI engineer) became the leader of the fissile material production program. Lord Portal can be thought of as the "British Leslie Groves" who directed the Manhattan Project in the U.S. One key difference here was the existence of a civilian-oriented program absent during the war. The two civilian oriented components of the British atomic energy program (but with deliberate military applications), were led by Crockcroft and Hinton were under Portal.

The third secret part of the program, the development of atomic weapons came a bit later. The initial sites for Britain's nuclear program were also elected in 1946. The two civilian oriented components were located at Harwell, on the Berkshire Downs 12 miles south of Oxford, for the AERE research center, and Risley in Lancashire for Hinton's industrial complex. Construction began there for Britain's first nuclear reactor, BEPO (Britain Experimental Pile Zero), which went critical on 3 July 1948. LA-217, Use of gadget in rain or fog Los Alamos Reports by William Penney The "Oppenheimer" of Britain was physicist William G. Penney who had a prominent part of the British Mission at Los Alamos during the war. Penney's area of specialty was studying the physics of hydrodynamic waves, both shock waves and the more familiar ocean (gravity) waves. Penney had designed and supervised development of the mobile breakwaters used to protect the landing sites of the Normandy (D-Day) Invasion in 1944. Shortly before D-Day he had left his teaching post at Imperial College in London and travelled to Los Alamos at the request of G. I.

Taylor. At Los Alamos Penney's principal assignment was studying the damage effects from the blast wave of the atomic bomb, but he became involved in implosion studies as well and spent up to half his time working in this area. His expertise in ocean waves was also called upon to investigate the effects of underwater explosions. Penney's combination of expertise, analytical skill, effective communication, and the ability to translate them into practical application soon made him one of the five members of the Los Alamos "brain trust" that made key decisions in the direction of the program, putting him in the company of Robert Oppenheimer, John Von Neumann, "Deke" Parsons and Norman Ramsey. On 27 April 1945 Penney became one of only two representatives from Los Alamos (and the only Briton) to be part of the ten man Target Committee that drew up the list of targets for the atomic bombing of Japan. Penney travelled to Tinian Island in the Pacific to be on hand for planning and briefing the atomic bombing missions. Penney actually witnessed the bombing of Nagasaki, flying in an observation plane accompanying the attack. Afterward he conducted damage surveys there on the ground.

Penney returned to Imperial College immediately after the war, but soon received other offers. He turned down the prestigious Sedleian chair of mathematics at Oxford University, and accepted an offer tendered to him by C.P. Snow - the position of Chief Superintendent of Armament Research (CSAR, called "Caesar") which placed him in charge of the Armament Research Department (ARD). Penney's appointment was announced 1 January 1946. No decision had been made by the British government at that point to develop an atomic bomb, but clearly Penney realized that this decision was inevitable and when it happened the responsibility would fall to him to lead the effort. Penney was soon called away from his post in London at the request of General Groves to participate in the first post-war nuclear test called Operation Crossroads. The U.S. had turned sharply away from collaborating on nuclear technology with the UK after the end of the war, and this was a golden opportunity for Britain to keep this relationship alive. Operation Crossroads was conducted at Bikini Atoll by 242 ships and 42,000 men and tested the effect of two atomic bombs on a captive test fleet of warships.

On 1 October 1946 Penney returned to London and at the request of Lord Portal spent the month writing a ten page report outlining a plan for developing an atomic bomb. Penney met with Portal to discuss the plan on 4 November. Penney then returned to preparing a final report on the Crossroads tests, and travelled to Washington DC in December to present his findings, returning to London in February. On 8 January 1947 the secret GEN.163 Cabinet committee of six Ministers (headed by PM Attlee) decided to proceed with development and acquisition of atomic weapons. Curiously Penney did not receive word of this decision until May 1947 when he was finally asked by Portal to lead Britain's own nuclear weapon program. The decision was not disclosed publicly in any respect until 12 May 1948, when an oblique reference was made to atomic weapon development in parliamentary discussions. In June 1947 Penney began assembling a team to work on the bomb. One of his first steps was to prepare a document describing the design of the U.S. implosion bomb in detail, and breaking down the development tasks required to replicate it, and identifying outstanding questions that required further research.

This report was completed on 1 July, and gave the British atomic weapons program a starting design description roughly equivalent in terms of detail to the description provided the Soviets by Klaus Fuchs. Penney's plan, entitled Plutonium Weapon - General Description is available on this website. It is complete with Penney's written report, and his diagrams of the planned weapon. The project was code named Basic High Explosive Research or BHER (later just HER) and was based at Woolwich Arsenal. Unlike the U.S. atomic bomb project which had been centrally located at the custom built facility of Los Alamos, BHER drew on existing groups scattered over several sites. In addition to Woolwich, ARD groups at Fort Halstead and other sites were involved. Furthermore not all aspects of bomb development resided with BHER. Although BHER was responsible for the overall weapon design, and the development and fabrication of the implosion system, the manufacture of the plutonium core initially resided with the plutonium production program under Hinton. This created problems in organization since lines of authority with other research sites were often not clear.

By mid 1948 the responsibilities had been settled, and on 1 April 1950 a single site was selected for atomic weapons development at Aldermaston in Berkshire. A site for the first plutonium production reactors and plutonium processing plant was selected at Sellafield on the Irish Sea coast in Cumberland. The site was renamed Windscale (now Sellafield again), and construction began in September 1947. In October 1950 the first production reactor went critical. The plutonium plant began operation on 25 February 1952, and produced the first plutonium metal 35 days later. A gaseous diffusion plant was also planned, and the site eventually chosen in Early 1950 was Capenhurst, near Chester. This plant finally began operation in 1953. An extension boosted its annual production capacity to 125 kg of HEU at the end of 1957. Also see this map Due to the small size and high population density of Britain no suitable sites for atmospheric weapons tests existed. Britain thus sought sites in other countries to test its weapons, finally settling on the Monte Bello Islands just off the west coast of Australia.

The plutonium for the first test device was needed by 1 August 1952 to meet the schedule. Because the Windscale plant was not quite able to meet this, some Canadian supplied plutonium was also incorporated into the core. 15 September 1952 the plutonium core for the first British nuclear device, code named Hurricane, left England. The expedition to test the first British atomic bomb was led by Captain (later Rear Admiral) AD Torlesse sailing on his flag ship the escort carrier HMS Campania . The entire expedition fleet consisted of five ships (the Campania, the sacrificial test ship Plym, and three landing craft) and 1500 men, a fraction of the size of the Crossroads operation. This force proved to be just barely adequate to carry out the planned test operation, finding itself stretched to the limit in almost every capacity. Hurricane Yield: 25 Kt On 3 October 1952 Hurricane was detonated in a lagoon off the western shore of Trimouille Island.

The bomb was exploded inside the hull of the River-class frigate HMS Plym which was anchored in 12 m (40 feet) of water 400 yards off shore. The explosion occurred 2.7 m below the water line. There seems to be some discrepancy in the precise time of the test. The time normally given is 0000Z (mignight Zulu time, that is GMT), or 0001Z on 3 October 1952 ( [Arnold 1987] ). Arnold explains that the shot was almost precisely at midnight and that 0001Z was used to assign it to a definite GMT date. According to [Cathcart 1994] however the test was 36 seconds before the hour. Cathcart adds some possible confusion about what the hour was also. He gives the test time as 36 seconds before 8 am Perth time (normally 8 hours later then GMT), but 1 am London time (which is normally GMT). This was the first British nuclear test. The device tested was a plutonium implosion bomb similar to the Fat Man, but improved by using a levitated pit.

The bomb used plutonium produced at Windscale (now Sellafield) with a low Pu-240 content since hurried production led to short irradiation times. In fact Windscale could not quite meet the August 1 deadline for manufacturing the core and the device also used some Canadian-supplied plutonium. The test was devised to investigate the effects of a ship-smuggled bomb (a threat of great concern to the British at the time). The ship was mostly vaporized by the explosion, except for scattered fragments of hot metal that set fires to the spinifex scrub covering Trimouille. The explosion occured 2.7 m below the water line, and left a saucer-shaped crater on the seabed 20 feet deep and 1,000 feet across. The cloud from the explosion rose only to 15,000 feet due to the very dry air (which allowed evaporation of water to cool the ascending cloud) and the presence of a strong inversion at that altitude. Except for the men stationed at the control center on Hermite Island, everyone observed the test from the Campania which had put to sea. By a strange coincidence, the principal observation site for the first U.S.

nuclear test was a hill named Compania! Large version (108 K) Cloud seven and a half minutes after the test with the effect of the inversion and shear layers clearly visible The British arsenal acquired its first deployed weapon, the Blue Danube plutonium bomb, in November 1953. This weapon was based on the Hurricane device. From a technology standpoint it was probably very similar to the U.S. Mk 4, which went into service in 1949. Like the Mk 4 it had a 60 inch, 32 lens implosion system and used a levitated core suspended within a hollow uranium tamper. Plans at this point called for building up an arsenal of 200 weapons by 1957 so plutonium production was expanded by adding two new dual use (plutonium and electricity) MAGNOX reactors at Calder Hall. What Happened in Oct 1952 | World History Project What Happened in Oct 1952 The 1952 World Series featured the three-time defending champion New York Yankees beating the Brooklyn Dodgers in seven games. The Yankees won...

Read more Oct 3 1952 8:00AM Operation Hurricane was the test of the first British atomic device on 3 October 1952. A plutonium implosion device was detonated in the lagoon... Read more Oct 7 1952 Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin was born on 7 October 1952, in Leningrad, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union (modern day Saint Petersburg, Russia), to parents... Read more Oct 8 1952 The hope that 1952 would prove to be a good year from the point of view of train accident casualties has been extinguished by the disaster at... Read more Oct 9 1952 Ikiru (生きる, "To Live"?) is a 1952 Japanese film co-written and directed by Akira Kurosawa. The film examines the struggles of a Tokyo bureaucrat...

Read more Oct 14 1952 to Nov 25 1952 The Battle of Triangle Hill, also known as Operation Showdown or the Shangganling Campaign (simplified Chinese: 上甘岭战役; pinyin: Shànggānlǐng... Read more Oct 16 1952 Limelight is a 1952 comedy-drama film written, directed by and starring Charlie Chaplin, co-starring Claire Bloom, with an appearance by Buster... Read more Oct 21 1952 Britain Goes Nuclear | Cold War: A Brief History | History of the Atomic Age | atomicarchive.com Cold War: A Brief History Cold War: A Brief History Britain Goes Nuclear Britain was the first country to investigate the development of nuclear weapons. Work by Otto Frisch and Rudolf Peierls in Febuary 1940, and the MAUD Committee (a code name chosen from the first name of one member's nanny) report showed the feasibility of fission weapons. British scientists, known as "the British Mission," later made major contributions to the Manhattan Project.

However, with the 1946 passing of the Atomic Energy Act, also known as "The McMahon Act," ties between U.S. and British nuclear programs were severed. As the Cold War began, Great Britain felt it should have an independent nuclear force. In January 1947, plans were formed to develop a British nuclear weapon. Led by Sir John Crockcroft, Britain's first nuclear reactor went critical on July 3, 1948. Sites for plutonium production and highly enriched uranium were also constructed. Due to the small size, no suitable sites for atmospheric weapons tests existed. Britain thus sought sites in other countries to test its weapons, finally settling on the Monte Bello Islands, off the west coast of Australia. On October 3, 1952, Britain detonated its first atomic device, code-named "Hurricane." It had an explosive yield of about 25 kilotons. The British nuclear test code-named Hurricane In 1954, Churchill decided that Britain should go ahead with hydrogen bomb development. Britain's first successful hydrogen bomb was detonated on November 8, 1957, over Christmas Island in the Pacific.

The test had a yield of 1.8 megatons. Following an amendment to the Atomic Energy Act in 1958, cooperation between U.S. and British nuclear programs resumed. After the 1957-'58 test series, the United Kingdom ceased conducting its own independent nuclear tests. Once nuclear testing resumed in 1961, the U.S. and Britain also began conducting joint tests at the Nevada Test Site. All subsequent British nuclear weapons were based on U.S. designs, which were made available to Britain. Page 10 of 27 Nuclear Proliferation timeline | World History Project Nuclear Proliferation timeline In August 1939, prominent physicists Leó Szilárd and Eugene Wigner drafted the Einstein–Szilárd letter, which warned of the potential development... Read more Aug 6 1945 My God, what have we done? Read more Aug 9 1945 The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were nuclear attacks near the end of World War II against the Empire of Japan by the United...

Read more Sep 5 1945 Igor Sergeyevich Gouzenko (January 13, 1919, Rogachevo, Soviet Union – June 28, 1982, Mississauga, Canada) was a cipher clerk for the Soviet... Read more Feb 22 1946 G. F. Kennan had been stationed at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow as minister-counselor since 1944. Although highly critical of the Soviet system, the... Read more Aug 29 1949 The RDS-1 (Russian: РДС-1), was the Soviet Union's first nuclear weapon test. It is also known as Joe-1, in reference to Joseph Stalin. It was... Read more Oct 3 1952 8:00AM Operation Hurricane was the test of the first British atomic device on 3 October 1952. A plutonium implosion device was detonated in the lagoon... Read more Feb 13 1960 Gerboise Bleue ("blue jerboa") was the name of the first French nuclear test.

It was an atomic bomb detonated in the middle of the Algerian Sahara... Read more Oct 14 1962 The first consignment of SS-3 MRBMs (medium range ballistic missiles) arrived on the night of September 8, followed by a second on September 16.... Read more Oct 28 1962 9:00AM After much deliberation between the Soviet Union and Kennedy's cabinet, Kennedy secretly agreed to remove all missiles set in Turkey on the border... Read more Oct 7 1963 The Treaty banning Nuclear Weapon Tests In The Atmosphere, In Outer Space And Under Water, often abbreviated as the Partial Test Ban Treaty (PTBT),... Read more Oct 16 1964 596 is the codename of the People's Republic of China's first nuclear weapons test, detonated on October 16, 1964 at the Lop Nur test site. It was... Read more Mar 5 1970 The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, also Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT or NNPT) is a treaty to limit the spread of...

Read more May 18 1974 8:05AM While touring the Bhabha Atomic Research Center (BARC) on 7 September 1972 Prime Minister Indira Gandhi gave verbal authorization to the scientists... Read more May 28 1998 3:16PM Chagai-I refers to the nuclear tests conducted by Pakistan in 1998. It was named Chagai-I as the tests were conducted in the Chagai District... Read more Oct 9 2006 North Korea’s Nuclear Test: Motivations, Implications, and U.S. Options On October 9, 2006, North Korea announced it conducted a nuclear test.... Read more May 27 2009 SEOUL (AFP) — North Korea said Wednesday it was abandoning the truce that ended the Korean war and warned it could launch a military attack on the... Read more Jun 2 2009 The North Korean leader, Kim Jong-il, has named his youngest son as his successor, South Korean newspaper reports said today , the latest in a... Read more Jun 8 2009 A North Korean court sentenced two U.S.

journalists to 12 years in a labor camp Monday, as the government of Kim Jong Il continued to ratchet up... Read more Jun 15 2009 As North Korea threatens nuclear war, President Barack Obama and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak will be eager to show the North the unity of... Read more Jun 17 2009 A North Korean ship shadowed by an American Navy destroyer and possibly heading toward Myanmar on Sunday could pose the first test of how far the... Read more Jun 22 2009 I don't want to speculate on hypotheticals. But I do want to give assurances to the American people that the T's are crossed and the I's are dotted. Read more Jul 1 2009 A North Korean cargo ship being closely tailed by the United States Navy appears to be changing course, and may be returning to North Korea. The... Read more Jul 4 2009 US Vice President Joseph Biden on Sunday dismissed North Korea's latest series of missile launches, saying the communist regime was engaged in...

Read more Jul 6 2009 Nuclear Proliferation Today | Atomic Heritage Foundation Nuclear Proliferation Today Nuclear Issues Today Although the use of Little Boy and Fat Man brought World War II to a decisive halt, the unprecedented use of nuclear weapons served as the starting point for an ongoing era of nuclear proliferation. Stockpiles rapidly grew as the United States and Soviet Union became embroiled in cold war, and rapid scientific advancement led to the creation of far more powerful weapons. Today, nuclear nonproliferation stands among the most pressing issues facing the international community. Manhattan Project Even prior to the United States' use of atomic weapons, the Soviet Union's atomic project was already underway. Using spies recruited at Manhattan Project sites - famous among which are Klaus Fuchs, George Koval, and the Rosenbergs, among others - the Soviets were able to accelerate their nuclear program by several years. Cold War Vertical Proliferation Following the war, the countries of the newly-founded United Nations needed to address the future of nuclear weapons.

The United States proposed the Baruch Plan, calling for disarmament, a ban on production of nuclear weapons, the open exchange of scientific information required to use nuclear energy to achieve peaceful ends, and the use of nuclear power for peaceful purposes. The Soviet Union, citing issues of trust should they consent to such a plan under the western-dominated United Nations, rejected the idea. As no firm agreement could be reached, the US and USSR plunged into a decades-long nuclear arms race. Partially as a result of successful espionage, the Soviets were quick to develop their first atom bomb. Access to uranium, which was much more common than previously thought, was initially achieved through mining in Eastern Bloc satellite states. Defying all expectations, the Soviet Union was able to detonate its first atomic bomb on August 29, 1949. As neither country intended to cease nuclear development following the construction of the atom bomb, the United States and Soviet Union were in a race to create the world’s first hydrogen bomb – a weapon far more powerful than that dropped on Hiroshima or Nagasaki.

Having had a head start, Edward Teller's team, sanctioned by the newly formed United States Department of Defense, managed to detonate the world's first fusion bomb on November 1, 1952. The following August, the Soviets followed suit with their own H-bomb, RDS-6 (referred to as Joe 4 by the US). Despite the continuous technological developments surrounding nuclear armaments, the lack of a long-range delivery mechanism dampened the deterrent effect of said weapons. Originally, the only way to drop a nuclear bomb was through the use of strategic bombers. This changed with the production of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM). To display advancement of ICBM technology, the US and USSR became intertwined in the Space Race. Although the official goal was to prove superiority in space exploration, the delivery mechanism for satellites was fundamentally the same as that for thermonuclear warheads. Thus, whichever state could successfully put a device in orbit would prove capable of reaching the other with a mounted warhead. The Soviet Union was the first to showcase the capability for long-range nuclear warfare when it launched the Sputnik satellite into orbit in 1957.

The United States was slow to counter, taking two years to launch its first satellite. At this time, both states had the capacity to obliterate each other’s major population centers. Although the United States and Soviet Union continued to improve and expand their arsenals, a stalemate of sorts had been reached. Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) ensured, theoretically, that neither state would conduct a nuclear strike on the other, as nuclear retaliation would prove inevitable. This concept, known as deterrence, did not guarantee peaceful interaction, as evidenced by the Cuban Missile Crisis. Although both sides were armed with nuclear weapon-equipped ICBM, the proximity of Soviet missiles in Cuba triggered massive concern in the Kennedy administration, almost leading to the breakout of nuclear war. Cold War Horizontal Proliferation Throughout the duration of the Cold War several countries developed nuclear weapons programs. Today, ten states have acquired a nuclear weapons capability, six of which possess stockpiles to this day.

Timeline of First Nuclear Tests 16 July 1945, United States: Trinity Test, Alamogordo, NM, Plutonium Implosion Device (20 KT) 29 August 1949 Soviet Union: “Joe-1” aka First Lightning, Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan, Plutonium Implosion Device (22 KT) 3 October 1952 United Kingdom: Operation Hurricane, Montebello Islands, Western Australia, Plutonium Implosion Device (25 KT) 13 February 1960 France: “Gerboise Bleue” or Blue Gerbil, Reggane, Algerian Sahara Desert, Plutonium Device (70KT) 16 October 1964 People’s Republic of China: “596,” Lop Nur, Xinjiang Province in North Western China, Uranium Implosion Device (22 KT) 18 May 1974 India: “Smiling Buddha” aka Pokhran I, Peaceful Nuclear Explosion (PNE), Pokhran in the Western Deserts of Rajasthan, Plutonium Implosion Device (8 KT) 28 May 1998 Pakistan:

 Chagai I, Balochistan Province in Southwest Pakistan, series of 5 tests using uranium implosion devices (maximum yield 40 KT) 9 October 2006 North Korea: Mt.

Punggye-ri in the North Hamgyong Province, Plutonium Implosion Device (less than 1 KT) Other Nuclear Programs: Early 1960s Israel: Israel maintains the position that it will not formally introduce nuclear weapons to the Middle East by testing a device. However, its nuclear reactor in the Negev desert named Dimona, constructed in early 1958, is believed to have gone critical shortly after the US discovered the facility in the early 1960s. By the end of the decade Israel most likely had assembled a bomb. South Africa: South Africa pursued a nuclear weapons capability from the 1960s-1970s. In August 1977 the Soviet Union picked up intelligence that the country was preparing for a cold test of a nuclear device at Vastrap in the Kalahari Desert. The United States and its European successfully convinced the country to refrain from conducting the test. Subsequently, the country moved its nuclear program to an underground facility at Pelindaba. Later in September 1979, a United States Vela satellite detected a double flash, a common feature of a nuclear detonation, off of the country’s coast.

While many officials and historians suspect that the incident was an actual test potentially involving Israel, evidence is inconclusive and the event remains controversial to this day. However, by the time Nelson Mandela became President in 1994, following the end of Apartheid, South Africa had voluntarily dismantled its nuclear weapons. Proliferation Country-by-Country United Kingdom: Initially, the British were barred access to United States nuclear design data. The threat of espionage necessitated heightened security surrounding the American nuclear program. Regardless, the United Kingdom was able to detonate its first atom bomb on October 3, 1952, thanks to the expertise of British Manhattan Project scientists. When nuclear cooperation with the United States resumed in 1958, the British deployed submarine-based American Polaris missiles equipped with nuclear warheads. Having such weapons stationed off the coast of the small island guaranteed a deterrent effect. France: In the late 1940s, the French were successfully operating their own nuclear reactors. It was not until the late 1950s, however, that France decided to accelerate its nuclear program to achieve nuclear deterrence.

On February 13, 1960, the French detonated their first atomic bomb in Algeria. People's Republic of China: In the 1950s, the Chinese gained the support of the Soviet Union in developing their nuclear program. Despite the ideological Sino-Soviet split in the latter part of that decade, the Chinese managed to detonate their first atomic device on October 16, 1964. Israel: Although Israel's nuclear program is shrouded in ambiguity, it is widely believed that Israel is in possession of nuclear weapons. Illegally obtained evidence provided by a former Israeli nuclear technician, Mordechai Vanunu, illustrates that the state has nuclear capabilities. Development of this program likely began shortly after World War II. At the time, the French were in collaboration with the Israelis and provided them with a research reactor in the 1950s. India: India became the next country to detonate its first nuclear device. Work on a nuclear weapon commenced in the 1960s, but was not considered a priority. Following the Indo-Pakistani war of 1971, however, the Indian government accelerated work on this project.

In 1972, authorization was granted for the production and testing of a nuclear device. The "Smiling Buddha" was detonated on May 18, 1974. Pakistan: In response to the nuclear threat emanating from bordering India, Pakistan began work on its nuclear program in 1972. Twenty-six years later, Pakistan tested its first five nuclear weapons on May 28, 1998, as a reponse to India's Pokhran II test earlier that month, making it the eighth nuclear state. Other countries: Throughout the Cold War, several states had possession of nuclear weapons, but destroyed or surrendered their stockpiles. Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Ukraine agreed to get rid of their nuclear weapons following the collapse of the Soviet Union. The South African apartheid-era government eliminated their stockpile, worried that the weapons could fall into the hands of militants. Non-Proliferation Many view the proliferation of nuclear weapons as a danger to the international community. North Korea and Iran are the current epicenters of concern regarding the issue of horizontal proliferation. There are similarly fears that non-state actors - especially terrorist groups - may acquire these weapons.

India and Pakistan have been on the cusp of nuclear war, showing that the logic of mutually assured destruction may not be as sound as previously thought. Thus, a number of steps toward nonproliferation have been taken. The Pugwash Conference, organized by Joseph Rotblat , was the first major, non-governmental effort to curb the proliferation of nuclear weapons. This conference was the result of the Russell-Einstein Manifesto, and initially involved twenty-two scientists from countries on both sides of the Cold War divide. Over the years, Pugwash convened with the goal of reducing production and stockpiles of nuclear weapons. Rotblat, along with Pugwash Conferences, was awarded the 1995 Nobel Peace Prize for these efforts. The most crucial treaty dealing with the issue of nuclear weapons proliferation, the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), came into force on March 5, 1970. Noting that the trend of horizontal proliferation would inevitably continue, the United States and Soviet Union collaborated to prevent such an outcome. This treaty identified the United States, Soviet Union, United Kingdom, and France as nuclear weapons states.

For more information about the treaty, visit our Cold War history page on the NPT . The Atomic Bomb The Atomic Bomb The 509th, Is Winning the War. On August 6th, 1945, Hiroshima Japan became the first Atomic Target. The Atomic Bomb was developed by the United States by the super secret "Manhatten Project". The work was dangerous as well as time-consuming. One of the worst accidents involved Louis Slotin, a Canadian scientist in charge of monitoring plutonium chain reactions in a device known as the "guillotine." One day the Slotin's screwdriver got jammed in the guillotine, causing the plutonium to form a hypercritical mass capable of explosion. Immediately Slotin tore apart the two pieces of plutonium with his bare hands and in the process absorbed an enormous amount of radiation. The event is accurately portrayed in the movie "Fat Man and Little Boy ". Louis Slotin The explosion was averted, but at the price of his life. The code words for the bombs were: Little Boy- Hiroshima But the first bomb detonated as a test in New Mexico was named "Gadget". The first nuclear weapon detonated by the Soviet Union was named "First Lightning".

The first Hydrogen Bomb was detonated in 1951 by the Americans. Code named "Ivy Mike", the scientists called it "Sausage". It was the size of a small factory and weighed a mere 56 metric TONS. When detonated, it vaporized the island of Elugelab where it was constructed. See the Proof. This Ivy-Mike. Operation Hurricane was the test of the first British atomic device on 3 October 1952 Gerboise Bleue ("blue jerboa" or Blue Rat) was the name of the first French nuclear test. It was an atomic bomb detonated in the middle of the Algerian Sahara desert on 13 February 1960, during the Algerian War (1954�62) The first Chinese bomb was detonated in 1964 and was named "596". "Born Inside Box 1663" - Box 1663, Santa Fe, NM was the "blind" address used for all correspondence to and from Los Alamos. The actual name Los Alamos was prohibited from showing up on any letters or parcels - coming or going!

The address shown on the birth certificates of the children born at the Los Alamos Engineers Hospital during the war years indicated a simple "Box 1663". Some weeks after Germany had surrendered, a German U-boat (#U-234) pulled into the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Virginia. The crew promptly surrendered themselves and their cargo - 10 cases of uranium ore being transported to Japan. Edward Teller, whom history would later dub the Father of the Hydrogen Bomb made a bet that the Trinity Test (Gadget) might cause a chain reaction that would ignite the whole of the Earth's atmosphere, killing every living thing on the planet. While most viewed that outcome as all but impossible, there was sufficient "wiggle room" in the calculations used to predict the bomb's output that the Manhattan Project scientists actually started a small betting pool on the suspected force of the atomic blast. Physicist I. I. Rabi won the pool, having predicted an 18-kiloton blast, which most closely met the observed Trinity output of 18.6 kilotons. The B-29's that participated in the first Atomic Mission (Hiroshima)were: Enola Gay- Carrying the Bomb (Little Boy).

The Great Artiste- Carrying Instruments and Cameras. Aircraft No. 91 (later named Necessary Evil)-Carrying Instruments and Cameras. Straight Flush- Weather Plane (Hiroshima). Full House- Weather Plane (Nagasaki, secondary target). Jabbitt III- Weather Plane (Kokura, tertiary target). Top Secret- Flying Spare Aircraft. Original Crew Interview-1945 The Crew of the Enola Gay were: Flight Crew: Navy Capt. William "Deak" Parsons, Manhattan Project Scientist Sgt. Joseph S. Stiborik, radar operator S/Sgt. George R. Caron, tail gunner Pfc. Richard H. Nelson, radio operator Sgt. Robert H. Shumard, assistant engineer S/Sgt. Wyatt E. Duzenbury, flight engineer Capt. Theodore J. Van Kirk, navigator Maj. Thomas W. Ferebee, bombardier Col. Paul W. Tibbets, 509th Group CO and pilot Capt. Robert A. Lewis, co-pilot Lt. Jacob Beser, radar countermeasure officer Lt. Morris R. Jeppson, bomb electronics test officer Ground Crew: Technical Sgt. Walter F.

McCaleb, crew chief Sgt. Leonard W. Markley Pfc. John J. Lesniewski Lt. Col. John Porter, ground maintenance officer Capt. Robert A. Lewis, co-pilot of The Enola Gay was keeping a diary of the mission. as they started the bomb run he wrote: "There'll be a short intermission while we bomb the target." After the explosion he wrote: "MY GOD!" Political correctness has revised his quote to read: "OH MY GOD! What have we done? If I live 100 years I will never forget this moment." In interviews, Lewis has said all he wrote was "OH MY GOD!". He says that was the only thing he could think of. Nuclear Test Sites | atomicarchive.com Nuclear Test Sites From 1945 until 2008, there have been over 2,000 nuclear tests conducted worldwide. United States Test Sites Nevada Test Site, Nevada Established by President Truman in 1951 and now operated by the Department of Energy, the Nevada Test Site (NTS) has been the site of over 900 atmospheric and underground nuclear tests.

The Nevada Test Site was the primary testing location of American nuclear devices; 126 tests were conducted elsewhere (many at the Pacific Proving Grounds in the Marshall Islands). On July 17, 1962 the last atmospheric test detonation occurred at the Nevada Test Site. Underground testing continued until September 23, 1992. (37.016535°N, 116.029186°W) Trinity Site, New Mexico Trinity Site is where the first atomic bomb was tested at 5:29:45 a.m. Mountain War Time on July 16, 1945. The site was part of the Alamogordo Bombing Range, now the White Sands Missile Range. (33.674997°N, 106.47666°W) Eniwetok Atoll, Marshall Islands Some 43 nuclear tests were detonated at Enewetak from 1948 to 1958. The first hydrogen bomb test, code-named Mike, was tested on November 1, 1952.

The explosion vaporized the island of Elugelab. (11.552561, 162.347303°E) Bikini Atoll, Marshall Islands Administered by the United States, this island was first used for nuclear testing during Operation Crossroads in 1946. On March 1, 1954, Bikini Atoll was also the site of the largest U.S. nuclear test ever exploded. The Bravo test had a yield of 15 megatons, 3 times the planned yield. (11.5833333°N, 165.3833333°E) Johnston Island, United States Minor Outlying Islands Site of 12 high-altitude nuclear tests during the late 1950's and early 1960's. It is administered by the United States. (16.730002°N, 169.529128°W) Christmas Island, Kiribati Used for British and American nuclear testing in the 1950's and early 1960's.

Site of the first British thermonuclear detonation on November 8, 1957. The USA conducted 22 successful nuclear detonations as part of Operation Dominic here in 1962. (1.844011°N, 157.70462°W) Amchitka Island, Alaska Amchitka Island was the site for three underground nuclear tests. The first test, Long Shot (1965), was designed to determine whether the blast's shock waves could be distinguished from earthquakes. Milrow, the second (1969), and Cannikin (1971) were part of the U.S. anti-ballistic missile development program. Cannikin had a yield "under 5 megatons", the largest underground test ever conducted by the United States. Amchitka is no longer used for nuclear testing. (51.378853°N, 179.258423°E) Fallon, Nevada The Shoal event was part of the VELA UNIFORM program. It was intended to produce a better understanding of the seismic detection of underground nuclear explosions.

(39.200001°N, 118.381001) Central Nevada Test Area, Nevada Project Faultless detonation, a nuclear weapons test conducted on January 19, 1968. The nearly 1-megaton yield was detonated at a depth of 3,200 feet below the surface. This area is also known as the Central Nevada Test Area. (38.634220°N, 116.216179°W) Carlsbad, New Mexico Project GNOME was the first nuclear explosion to be used for peaceful purposes. It's goal was to explore the possibility of converting heat produced by a nuclear explosion into steam for the production of electric power. (32.26372°N, 103.866152°W) Green Valley, Colorado The aim of Project Rulison was to determine if natural gas could be easily liberated from underground regions. The test had a yield of 43-kilotons. After the test, the natural gas that was extracted was determined to be too radioactive to be sold commercially.

(39.487085°N, 107.95166°W) Rifle, Colorado The Rio Blanco test site had three simultaneously detonated 30 kiloton bombs, each at the bottom of a shaft more than a mile deep. The blast was marginally successful in causing the gas to collect in the cavity and fissures produced by the bombs, however the gas was too radioactive to be sold commercially. (37.978845°N, 108.303223°W) Farmington, New Mexico This was the site of the first U.S. underground nuclear experiment for the stimulation of low productivity gas resources. On December 10, 1967 a 29 kiloton nuclear explosive was detonated at a depth of 4222 feet. The GASBUGGY shot was part of the overall Operation PLOWSHARE (Atoms for Peace) program.

(36.677876°N, 107.20794°W) Hattiesburg, Mississippi Two nuclear detonations performed in a subterranean salt dome formation, as part of a 1960's Atomic Energy Commission Test. The first detonation, to form the cavity, code-named Salmon, took place in 1964 using a 5.3 kiloton bomb, placed at the bottom of a sealed 2,710-foot shaft. The second nuclear blast, a relatively small 0.38 kilotons yield shot code-named Sterling, was exploded within Salmon's 110-foot diameter cavity more than two years later. (31.334871°N, 89.450684°W) Open Sea, South Atlantic Ocean Three high-altitude nuclear weapons tests, name Operation Argus, were conducted between August and September of 1958. The tests were designed to see if high-altitude nuclear detonations would create a radiation belt in the extreme upper regions of the Earth's atmosphere.

(48.5°S, 8.2°W) Open Sea, Eastern Pacific Ocean Operation Wigwam consisted of a single nuclear detonation on May 14, 1955. It was a deep water test to investigate the vulnerability of submarines to deep nuclear weapons, and the feasibility of using depth bombs in combat. (28.806174°N, 126.27685°W) Russian Test Sites Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan The former Soviet Union's largest nuclear test site. The Semipalatinsk Test Site was founded in 1948 with the first nuclear explosion tested in August 29, 1949 and the last in 1989. Over 460 nuclear weapons tests were conducted at this test site. The site was officially closed on August 29, 1991. The region was heavily contaminated by the testing. (50.401515°N, 78.398438°E) Novaya Zemlya Island, C.I.S.

Site of extensive Soviet atmospheric and underground testing, Novaya Zemlya was the site of the largest thermonuclear device ever tested, a 58 megaton bomb detonated on October 23, 1961. Over its entire history as a nuclear test site, Novaya Zemlya hosted 224 nuclear detonations. (73.061045°N, 55.151367°E) Note: The Soviet Union conducted many more nuclear tests throughout its terrority, but Semipalatink and Novaya Zemlya were the primary testing locations. French Test Sites Mururoa and Fangatau Atolls, French Polynesia CEP (Le Centre d' experimentation du Pacifique). Fangataufa, and its sister atoll Mururoa, were the site of extensive nuclear testing by France between 1966 and 1996. The first French thermonuclear device was detonated here on August 24, 1968. Atmospheric testing ended in 1974, and underground testing ended in 1996.

(21.830907°S, 138.922119°W) Reggane, Sahara Desert, Algeria The first French nuclear device was detonated at Reggan on February 13, 1960. At the time, Algeria was a protectorate of France. (27.068909°N, 0.010986°W) In Ekker, Sahara Desert, Algeria The site of French 13 nuclear tests between 1961 and 1966. (24.069036°N, 5.037231°E) British Test Sites Montebello Islands, Australia The site of Operation Hurricane, the first British nuclear weapons test on October 3, 1952. There were two further tests on Alpha and Trimouille Islands in 1956.

(20.399130°S, 115.565768°E) Emu Field, Australia The site of the Operation Totem, a pair of atmospheric nuclear tests conducted by the British government in October 1953. (29.363027°S, 131.473389°E) Maralinga and Woomera Test Sites, Australia The site of the Operation Buffalo, a series of four atmospheric nuclear tests conducted in 1956. Operation Antler followed in 1957 with three nuclear tests. (29.856724°S, 131.598358°E) Chinese Test Site Lop Nur, China Primary nuclear test site. Site of the first Chinese atomic explosion on October 16, 1964 and first Chinese thermonuclear detonation on December 27, 1968. China's last nuclear test occurred here on July 29, 1996.

(40.75558°N, 89.500122°E) Indian Test Site Pokharan, Rajastan Desert, India Site of the first Indian nuclear detonation on May 18, 1974. This bomb was exploded 300 feet beneath the surface. The site of the 5 nuclear tests in 1998. (27.016682°N, 71.799691°E) The locale of the October 9, 2006 nuclear detonation. (41.280139°N, 129.085361°E) South African/Israeli Test Sites Prince Edward Island, Indian Ocean Site of the suspected South African/Israeli nuclear test. A United States Vela satellite detected the characteristic double flash of an atmospheric nuclear explosion on September 22, 1979. (46.36°S, 37.57°E) Combat Sites Hiroshima, Japan Site of the first nuclear weapon used in wartime.

The Hiroshima bomb, Little Boy, was dropped on August 6, 1945. It is yield was about 12 kilotons. Little Boy killed 70,000 people and injured another 70,000. By the end of 1945, the Hiroshima death toll rose to 140,000 as radiation sickness deaths mounted. Five years later the total reached 200,000. The bomb caused total devastation for five square miles, with almost all of the buildings in the city either destroyed or damaged. (34.39572°N, 132.453403°E) Nagasaki, Japan Site of the second nuclear weapon used in wartime. The Nagasaki bomb, Fat Man, was dropped three days after the bomb on Hiroshima, on August 9, 1945. It is yield was about 22 kilotons. Fat Man initially killed 40,000 people and injured 60,000 more. Three square miles of the city were destroyed, less than Hiroshima because of the steep hills surrounding Nagasaki.

By January 1946, 70,000 people had died in Nagasaki. The total eventually reached 140,000, with a death rate similar to that of Hiroshima. (32.774917°N, 129.862282°E)

Question: The test of the UK’s first atomic device in October 1952 was known as Operation what?
Answer: HURRICANE