Nuclear — fission · United Kingdom · 1952
Hurricane
Operation Hurricane
The first British nuclear test, carried out aboard a ship to study the effect of a bomb smuggled into a harbor.
See Hurricane in the 3D simulator- Yield
- 25 ktPublic estimate
- Energy
- 105 TJ
- Type
- First British test (plutonium)
- Period
- Cold War
- Status
- Single test
Hurricane releases about 1.7 times the energy of Little Boy (Hiroshima, 1945).
Key points
- The explosion left a crater in the seabed about 300 m wide and 6 m deep.
History
The United Kingdom became the third nuclear power. The test was conducted off Australia, with its government’s agreement.
- 1947 Secret decision to develop a British weapon.
- 3 October 1952 Hurricane test in the Montebello Islands.
How does it work?
A fission weapon releases energy by splitting heavy nuclei (uranium-235 or plutonium-239). Each fission releases about 200 MeV and a few neutrons.
If these neutrons cause further fissions, a chain reaction runs away in less than a millionth of a second.
The energy heats matter to tens of millions of degrees: fireball, thermal radiation and shock wave.
General principle of implosion: conventional explosives strongly compress the fissile material, which becomes “supercritical” and sustains the chain reaction.
Deliberately general explanations: the application provides no design or manufacturing information.
Frequently asked questions
How powerful is Hurricane?
Hurricane has an estimated yield of 25 kt of TNT equivalent, about 105 TJ of energy.
What is the history of Hurricane?
Single test, on 3 October 1952, in the Montebello Islands (Australia). The United Kingdom became the third nuclear power. The test was conducted off Australia, with its government’s agreement.
What does the Hurricane explosion look like?
The Bomb Simulator shows the fireball, shock wave and cloud of Hurricane at real scale, over Paris, London or New York, with the sources and reliability of each value.
Sources
- Operation Hurricane — Wikipedia (overview, to be cross-checked)
Other weapons
- Trinity — 25 kt
- Little Boy — 15 kt
- Fat Man — 21 kt
- RDS-1 — 22 kt
- RDS-6s — 400 kt
- Gerboise Bleue — 70 kt
- 596 — 22 kt
- Davy Crockett — 20 t
- Ivy Mike — 10.4 Mt
- Castle Bravo — 15 Mt
- RDS-37 — 1.6 Mt
- Mk 17 — 15 Mt
This application is an educational tool. The animations and effect zones are simplified representations meant to illustrate orders of magnitude. They are neither a prediction of the effects of a real weapon nor a military planning tool.