AUSTRALIAN SAFETY

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28269, 6 May 1957, Page 9

AUSTRALIAN SAFETY

Monitoring Of

Fall-Out

MELBOURNE, M»y 4.

Constant monitoring would keep Australia safe from deadly strontium 90 and radioactive fall-out generally produced by nuclear bomb tests. Professor Sir Leslie Martin, a safety “watchdog" at nine atomic tests staged in and around Australia, said today. Professor Martin said there was no reason to believe that future nuclear tests would not be 100 per cent safe and successful. He said 100 fall-out measuring stations all over Australia would gather material to be sent to Harwell for examination.

Maralinga Tests The second series of British atomic tests at Maralinga, South Australia, would be held in September, the Melbourne “Sun News-Pictorial” said yesterday. The newspaper said, in a frontpage story from Canberra, that the tests “will show major advances in Britain’s deterrent nuclear weapons."

The “Sun”- said that high priority would be given at the tests to perfecting weapons suitable for delivery by manned bombers and guided missiles, including nuclear warheads for ballistic rockets.

Four nuclear devices were exploded in the first series of tests last year at Maralinga, which is in the South Australian desert about 600 miles north-west of Adelaide.

The “Sun” said the Australian Government had been kept informed by Britain of the results of the previous tests and plans for the new series which “will be the most comprehensive yet undertaken at Maralinga.” The “Sun” said that Britain’s main deterrent would be the hydrogen bomb, to be tested soon at Christmas Island.

The other deterrent would be atomic weapons due for further testing at Maralinga this year. “British atomic bombs are already in steady production and the Australian Government has been informed that the R.A.F. already holds substantial numbers of them.” the “Sun” said. It said that Australia, as a partner with Britain in both the atomic weapons and guided missiles programme, would have access to these weapons should an early emergency arise or as her new defence programme got under way.

The newspaper story said more precise details would be brought back to Australia by Professor E. W. Titterton, the leading Australian atomic scientist, as a result of discussions in London this week with Sir William Penney, director of the British nuclear weapons research establishment.