Abstract
Full-scale thermonuclear trials were implicit in the decision to build a British hydrogen bomb for two reasons. First, the scientists had to be sure their ideas would work, and secondly, for propaganda purposes, the politicians wanted a very big bang. Since there was a 50–kiloton limit on tests in Australia, and an embargo on thermonuclear weapons as a type, it would not be possible to fire a test shot there. So, as the scientists at Aldermaston began working on a hydrogen bomb, and even before the July 1954 Cabinet decision, the search began for a suitable location.
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Notes and References
W. E. Oulton, Christmas Cracker, p. 7.
This Whitehall committee, chaired by the Controller of Atomic Weapons in the Ministry of Supply, was the Atomic Weapons Trials Executive when dealing with weapons and trials in general but in dealing with individual trials became Totex, Mosex, Grapex, and so on.
W. E. Oulton, op. cit., p. 321.
See also L. Arnold, op. cit., pp. 79–80, 83–6.
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© 2001 The Ministry of Defence
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Arnold, L., Pyne, K. (2001). Captain Cook’s Coral Island. In: Britain and the H-Bomb. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230599772_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230599772_8
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