Operation Hurricane

Hurricane
Hurricane exploded in the hull of a frigate
Information
Country	United Kingdom
Test site	Monte Bello Islands, Western Australia
Period	1952
Number of tests	1
Test type	barge
Max. yield	25 kilotonnes of TNT (100 TJ)
Navigation
Next test series	Operation Totem

Operation Hurricane was the test of the first UK atomic device on 3 October 1952. A plutonium implosion device was detonated in the lagoon in the Monte Bello Islands in Western Australia. With the success of Operation Hurricane, Britain became the third nuclear power after the United States and the Soviet Union.

During the Second World War, Britain had its own nuclear weapons project, known as Tube Alloys, but the 1943 Quebec Agreement merged it with the American Manhattan Project. Several key British scientists worked as part of the British contribution to the Manhattan Project, but after the war the Americans ended cooperation with Britain on nuclear weapons. In January 1947, a cabinet sub-committee decided, in response to an apprehension of American isolationism and fears of Britain losing its great power status, to resume British efforts to build nuclear weapons. The project was called High Explosive Research, and was directed by Lord Portal, with William Penney in charge of bomb design.

Implicit in the decision to develop atomic bombs was the need to test them. The preferred site was the American Pacific Proving Grounds. As a fall back, sites in Canada and Australia were considered. The Admiralty suggested that the Monte Bello Islands might be suitable, so the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Clement Attlee, sent a request to the Prime Minister of Australia, Robert Menzies. The Australian government formally agreed to the islands being used as a nuclear test site in May 1951. In February 1952, Attlee's successor, Winston Churchill, announced in the House of Commons that the first British atomic bomb test would occur in Australia before the end of the year.