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Operation Totem
| Totem | |
|---|---|
 Obelisk at the Totem 1 test site | |
| Information | |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Test site | Emu Field, South Australia, Australia |
| Period | 15–27 October 1953 |
| Number of tests | 2 |
| Test type | tower |
| Max. yield | 10 kilotonnes of TNT (42 TJ) |
| Test series chronology | |
Operation Totem was a pair of British atmospheric nuclear tests which took place at Emu Field in South Australia in October 1953. They followed the Operation Hurricane test of the first British atomic bomb, which had taken place at the Montebello Islands a year previously. The main purpose of the trial was to determine the acceptable limit on the amount of plutonium-240 which could be present in a bomb.
In addition to the two main tests, there was a series of five subcritical tests called "Kittens". These did not produce nuclear explosions, but used conventional explosives, polonium-210, beryllium and natural uranium to investigate the performance of neutron initiators.
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