British nuclear tests at Maralinga were conducted between 1956 and 1963. A total of seven nuclear tests were performed, with approximate yields ranging from 1 to 27 kilotons of TNT. The site was left contaminated with radioactive waste, and an initial clean up was attempted in 1967. In 1994, the Australian Government paid compensation amounting to USD 13. 5 million to the traditional owners, the MaralingA Tjarutja people.
About British nuclear tests at Maralinga in brief
British nuclear tests at Maralinga were conducted between 1956 and 1963. A total of seven nuclear tests were performed, with approximate yields ranging from 1 to 27 kilotons of TNT. The site was left contaminated with radioactive waste, and an initial clean up was attempted in 1967. The McClelland Royal Commission, an examination of the effects of the minor trials and major tests, delivered its report in 1985. Debate continued over the safety of the site and the long-term health effects on the traditional Aboriginal custodians of the land and former personnel. In 1994, the Australian Government paid compensation amounting to USD 13. 5 million to the traditional owners, the MaralingA Tjarutja people. The last part of the Woomera Prohibited Area was returned to free access in 2014. In the 1950s Britain was still Australia’s largest trading partner, although it was overtaken by Japan and the United States by the 1960s. Britain and Australia still had strong cultural ties, and Robert Menzies, the Prime Minister from 1949 to 1966, was strongly pro-British. Most Australians were of British descent, and British ex-servicemen were the largest source of immigrants to Australia. The Australian Government had hopes of collaboration with Britain on nuclear weapons, particularly in the Middle East and Far East. Australia still maintained close defence ties with Britain through the Malayan Emergency that went from 1948 to 1960, which was created in the Malaya and New Zealand and created in 1948 and 1948. The British Government expected that the US would continue to share nuclear technology, which it regarded as a joint discovery, after the war, but the US Atomic Energy Act of 1946 ended technical co-operation.
Fearing a resurgence of United States isolationism, and Britain losing its great power status, the British Government restarted its own development effort, under the cover name \”High Explosive Research\”. In the late 1970s there was a marked change in how the Australian media covered the British nuclear tests. Some journalists investigated the subject and political scrutiny became more intense. In June 1993, New Scientist journalist Ian Anderson wrote an article titled \”Britain’s dirty deeds at Maraleda\” and several related articles. In 2007, Maraling a: Australia’s Nuclear Waste Cover-up by Alan Parkinson documented the unsuccessful clean-up at Marallinga. Popular songs about the Maraleala story have been written by Paul Kelly, Midnight Oil and Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe. In the 1980s, Australian journalist Brian Toohey ran a series of stories in the Australian Financial Review based in part on a leaked Cabinet submission. The stories were based on leaked Cabinet submissions. The first two were conducted from towers, while the last was suspended from balloons. Three tests were conducted in this series: Tadje, Biak 5. 67 kiloton of TNT and Taranak 26. 6 kilotON of TNT. The last was conducted from balloons, with Tadje used cobalt pellets as a tracer for determining yield.
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