The Maralinga rehabilitation project: final report

Abstract

Maralinga, South Australia was an important site in the United Kingdom nuclear weapons test programme. Seven bombs were exploded and a series of ‘safety’ tests carried out; the latter in particular disseminated appreciable amounts of uranium and plutonium over a wide area. A programme to clean up the test site over several years was instituted, with in-situ vitrification as a principal measure. The final report on the programme has now been published. However, both the programme and the Report are seriously flawed; this article provides criticisms of both.

Keywords:

• Australia
• Clean-up
• In-situ vitrification
• Maralinga
• Nuclear-weapon testing
• Plutonium
• United Kingdom