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Today marks the 70th anniversary of Operation Hurricane: the first atmospheric test of a British #nuclear weapon in Australia. A plutonium implosion device was detonated on 3 October 1952 in Main Bay, Trimouille Island, in the Monte Bello Islands off Western Australia. THREAD 
After the United States refused to let Britain use test sites in Nevada and Marshall Islands, the first UK atomic device was transported to Australia aboard HMS Plym. At Monte Bello the bomb was detonated inside the frigate, to simulate an enemy sailing a bomb into a British port
The Hurricane test had an explosive yield of 25 kilotons – larger than the blast which destroyed the Japanese city of Hiroshima. It spread contaminated debris over Trimouille Island and, as winds changed, fallout to the mainland.
