Operation Hurricane

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For the Allied air forces show of force over Germany during World War II see Operation Hurricane (1944)

The explosion cloud resulting from the Operation Hurricane detonation

Operation Hurricane was the test of the first British atomic bomb on 3 October 1952. A plutonium implosion bomb was detonated off the Montebello Islands, Western Australia

The weapon was a close copy of the Fat Man (Nagasaki) weapon, although the design was modified to use a levitated pit. This increased the power of the bomb, but was actually done as a safety measure. There were concerns that without the gap between the tamper and the pit, a criticality accident could occur. The bomb used plutonium produced mainly at Windscale (now Sellafield) in Cumbria with a low Pu-240 content since hurried production led to short irradiation times. However, Windscale could not quite meet the 1 August 1952 deadline for manufacturing the inner core and the device also used some Canadian-supplied plutonium.

To test the effects of a ship-smuggled bomb (a threat of great concern to the British at the time), Hurricane was exploded inside the hull of HMS Plym (a 1,370-ton River class frigate) which was anchored in 12 m of water 350 m offshore. The explosion occurred 2.7 m below the water line, and left a saucer-shaped crater on the seabed 6 m deep and 300 m across.

[edit] Specifics

Time: 00:00 on 3 October 1952 (GMT), 08:00 on 3 October 1952 (WAST)
Location: Off Trimouille Island, one of the Montebello Islands, Western Australia, Australia, 20°25′S, 115°33′E
Test Height and Type: Ship, -2.7 m
Yield: 25kt