Great Britain and nuclear Bombs

Great Britain and nuclear Bombs

Introduction

Today many people do not know that Great Britain is a nuclear power. Of course Russia, France and the United States of America tested thousands of atomic bombs during the last fifty years. However, Great Britains is still in possession of large amounts of these weapons.  This country was the third country, who became a thermonuclear power after some tests on the Christmas Islands.

Types of nuclear Weapons

An atomic bomb consists of highly radioactive material like plutonium 239 or uranium 235. A chain reaction is provoked by an initiator. The whole thing explodes.

The hydrogen bomb, or thermonuclear bomb, initially works much like an atomic bomb, with a fission chain reaction. However the heat and force is reflected by a surrounding container of uranium, triggering a secondary fusion stage with hydrogen isotopes. The blast is much more powerful

The neutron bomb has the decision to kill only the people and not to destroy the buildings. The blast is not so strong, but the released radioactivity is wide spread.

The humble Beginnings

Without any doubt the development of nuclear weapons was very important for the science. The journey began slowly, in 1896, with the discovery of radioactivity in uranium. Six years later Marie and Pierre Curie isolated the radioactive metal radium. Albert Einstein published his theory of relativity in 1905, and in January 1939 German physics were already capable to split the uranium atom. However, when WWII erupted the whole topic became a exciting race between the different countries, because everybody had recognised that this power could be very useful in warfare. Einstein finally urged the president of the United States Roosevelt in that time to launch an atomic weapons programme. Later Einstein described this proposal as 'one great mistake in his life'. The campaign was called the 'Manhattan Project' and was founded with only $6000. By 1945 the budget had grown to $2 billion. So America was the first nation in the world who produced an atomic bomb, which detonated on 16 July 1945 in New Mexico. Scientist gathered at an airbase to watch this first detonation and the were sure, that they had introduced a new age in mankind.

The whole experiment consisted of a steel tower, which was about 100 metres high, and a small cabin on the top. In this box there were two pieces of plutonium (the size of a baseball) with an initiator. Fairly early in the morning the countdown started and some seconds later the desert was illuminated by a flash, brighter than the sun and followed by a mushroom of powder and earth. The bomb had the special codename 'Trinity'. So the scientists had accomplished their work and the military took over. Less than a month later the United States dropped another bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. At least 66 000 of the city's 343 000 inhabitants were killed in blast equal to 15 000 tons of TNT. A much more powerful device eradicated Nagasaki some days later.

With those two events a real arms race had started. Other strong countries tried to get equal to America. The Soviet Union tested its first nuclear bomb in August 1949, and even Great Britain wanted to become a member in the atomic club. Under the leadership of the young scientist William Penney, who had also worked on the 'Manhattan Project' the first British nuclear bomb was constructed. On 3 October 1952 it exploded in the hull of an old frigate by the seashore of Australia.

Today there are several other countries, for example China, who are possession of such weapons. We don't know exactly whether Israel does, but India and Pakistan have developed nuclear bombs during the last years.

The rise of the Hydrogen Bomb

However the scientists were working on the much more effective hydrogen or thermonuclear bomb. During WWII they had already found out that fusion would create a greater explosion. The idea took off when the USA realised that the Soviets were building their own atomic bomb. Despite many problems, a Russian scientist described the campaign as one of the most perplexing challenges ever tackled in history of mankind, the first hydrogen device detonated on an atoll somewhere in the Pacific Ocean in 1952. This bomb was 500 time more powerful that the one on Nagasaki. However, the Soviet Union was also very fast and had their invention only one year after this incident.

Doubtless Great Britain was menaced by Russia at the beginning of the Cold War. So the government decided to start collaboration with the United States. But after the detonation of the first hydrogen bomb the Congress lost its interest, thinking it could stand alone. In 1955 England began to build its own hydrogen bomb. Protests against this campaign were raised very fast. The vast majority of the scientists warned the government of the danger, and even the Archbishop of Canterbury declared it as an act of suicide. Although the whole country was split the device was built nevertheless. The peace and the independence was to be protected from the communist danger in the east of Europe. In the fifties suddenly the leading countries recognised the enormous danger of the nuclear bombs and the support for a test ban grew after another US experiment of the Bikini Atoll. The crew of a Japanese fishing boat was badly injured by radioactive rays and their whole catch was destroyed. The simple response for the incident caused greater furore, when a presidential adviser said the h-bomb could destroy any city. In April 1954 more than 92 percent of questioned people wanted a suspensions of tests.

The British government knew that they were running out of time to develop such a bomb. Officials were already searching for test sites, several rejections they found the Christmas and Malden Islands, about 4000 miles away from Australia. It is the largest coral island in the world. By October 1995 a campaign with the codename 'Operation Grapple' started. Thousands of soldiers and scientist were carried to this lonely island with no proper airstrip. The supply consisted of fish and coconuts most of the time. In July 1956 the British government gave permission to detonate the first hydrogen bomb in the following year. Some of the people, who inhabited the former British colony, were taken to other islands but the vast majority of them stayed, and their rights were badly injured. By December 1956 there were nearly 4000 men on the area. Despite the poor supply with food, tools and stuff the work progressed quickly. In March the first tests started with a 300 kiloton device followed by several stronger bombs. The staff watched the play from a warship, which was quickly sold to Argentina after the tests. After the explosion of a 1.8 megaton bomb nobody doubted Britain's status as a nuclear power any more.

In the meantime the USSR had improved its weapons and strengthen its power. Now America had to collaborate with Great Britain again to remain the leader in the world. Both countries also joined tests in Nevada.

Yet Britain continued its own tests on the Christmas Islands. Bigger and more dangerous detonations followed. The environment was heavily contaminated because of the nuclear rays and the trash, which is still lying around today. It is astonishing that many servicemen were not informed about the danger of these test. So many of them became sick after they were exposed to radiation. The were not warned in any way. They were not aware of any menace, still swum in the sea, ate the fish and the coconuts. Today former service men, if they are still alive, claim they have suffered from classic symptoms of radiation exposure. Some say the tests had caused birth defects in their children and killed their friends. In 1990 the US government apologised for these incidents. A study also found that the average lifespan of British veterans was only 58 years and nearly 75 percent of them died because of cancer. Today we know that soldiers had to stay very close to the bomb, only protected by a pair of dark sunglasses. The effect of human beings had to be proofed to make the warfare more effective. Attempts to obtain compensation for these veterans were unsuccessful.

The Situation today

Some British officers still believe that these tests and the demonstration of power have avoided a global war and protected the peace. Nobody would have ever dared to start a nuclear war in this time. This would have been suicide for the whole mankind.

Today the leading nations are keen on reducing atomic weapons. By the late 1980s there were at least 40 000 bombs stored around the world. Perhaps the British Pacific tests helped enforce global peace, or maybe history will show they helped us towards destruction. But in a century dominated by astonishing scientific development, it was perhaps fitting that science controlled the balance of power and offered man this flirtation with Armageddon.