The Nuclear Age

Dr William Penney		 When William (later Lord) Penney gathered his team in the library at the Arsenal in 1947 and announced that they were going to build a nuclear bomb, it was as a direct result of Atlee's post war government's decision not to be left out of the atomic arms race. The Americans refused to share their secrets with Britain, largely due to fears over security, despite the active participation of Penney and others in the Los Alamos projects. The nuclear material was produced elsewhere - at Harwell - but Woolwich was to develop both the explosives and detonators for Britain's first Bomb. The Ministry of Supply's Atomic Weapons Establishment would also take over buildings on Woolwich Common, on Ha-ha Road, for the production of fibreglass nose cones and electronics for Britain's Bombs. The AWE in the Arsenal was so secret that many of the Arsenal's workers were unaware of its existence.
Located in a secure guarded compound at the heart of the site, Air Vice-Marshal Davis, in charge of security, issued orders that none but Ministers of the Crown were to be allowed inside. Other Ordnance Factory staff were to be told, simply, "We're doing a job which is a bit tricky, so in the interests of safety these buildings are out-of-bounds".
John Challens, who designed the firing circuits for the 32 detonators to initiate the explosive sphere around "Hurricane"'s plutonium core, died in March 2002. Testing at Shoeburyness was completed at the last minute before the Monte Bello nuclear test. Challens' genius achieved the required simultaneous detonation accurate to millionths of a second.
"Hurricane" was tested successfully at the Monte Bello Islands near Australia in 1952. The AWE soon moved from Woolwich; there were fears at the time of a Soviet invasion of western Europe, and Penney himself decreed that "No atomic weapons establishment is to be located in a target area adjacent to a port - the Port of London is liable to be knocked out by a mass destruction weapon....There must be two centres for each type of main activity...facilities must not be located within range of V2 rockets from the continent".
The AWE at Woolwich Common remained, however, after the facilities at both the Arsenal and Fort Halstead had moved to Aldermaston. Replying to Ministry nagging, Penney wrote "The principle reason it is inadvisable to move the installation from Woolwich Common is that it depends upon local labour of precisely the right class. No such labour is obtainable at or near Aldermaston".

The scientists were not the only ones to witness the nuclear tests around Australia. In order to test military clothing and equipment, sailors and marines were exposed to the flash. Many of them were national servicemen in their teens or early twenties. One recalls

We knew it was going to be an explosion. We were never told it was an atom bomb though it had come through the grapevine. They started the countdown and there was this flash and I could see right through my hands, the bones in them, it was like an x-ray of my hands, even though my eyes were shut. Then there was more like a roar, a rumble than a bang. And then we turned round and opened our eyes and just after there was this hot wind and you could feel it like grit hitting your body. The ship rocked slightly. And that was it.
The Nuclear Test Veterans claim abnormally high rates of cancers and ill-health as a result of their exposure, and an independent study by the University of Dundee Medical School supports this. However, this is disputed by the Government, which relies on a study carried out by the National Radiological Protection Board that suggests such illnesses are not attributable to exposure to nuclear testing.