Atomic Weapons Tests (continued)

Len Dwyer was asked to attend meetings of the AWTSC and was granted membership on 6 March 1956 before the beginning of the Monte Bello Islands tests of that year and D. J. Stevens replaced C. E. Eddy on the latter's death. The AWTSC was reconstituted in March 1957 with Titterton as Chairman and Len Dwyer and Don Stevens as the only other members. H. A. Wills of the Australian Department of Supply was Secretary, being later replaced by John Moroney. I replaced Len Dwyer on the AWTSC in December 1962.

Although the Bureau's Research Section had been involved in the Warren years in the general question of civil defence of the Australian population against atomic attack, because of the top secret nature of AWRE's activities only those of the Bureau staff with a 'need to know' were involved in atomic testing. Although this may now seem strange, for those of us who had lived through the war years it made sense.

The British personnel in the AWRE had chosen the Monte Bello Islands for the next series of tests because they wanted to test a weapon with the explosive force of 60 000 tons of TNT, and they believed the Australian authorities would not approve a test of that magnitude at Maralinga. Furthermore AWRE scientists were not confident of the accuracy of their estimates of the level of radioactivity which the explosion would produce at ground level.

Bureau of Meteorology