Researchers warn of dangerously high levels of plutonium “fallout” detected in Montebello Islands
Contamination from the little-known ‘Operation Hurricane’ will remain for thousands of years to come, scientists predict.
Scientists have found that a 70-year-old nuclear test site off the coast of Western Australia is still showing dangerously high levels of plutonium - and could stay that way for thousands of year.
The samples were taken at Montebello Islands as part of an ongoing study into the nuclear tests’ effects of marine life in the area. They found that the levels of plutonium are around 4,500 times higher than the rest of the coastline.
The three nuclear tests were performed by the British government between October 1952 and June 1956. ‘Operation Hurricane’ began with one bomb detonated in a ship 600 meters off the coast, while the second and third were mounted on towers at Trimouille and Alpha Island.
The new study is conducted by Madison Williams-Hoffman, a PhD student at Edith Cowan University. She has set out to understand how plutonium at these levels can present a risk to wildlife, explaining: “This is a baseline that tells us what the levels are. Next we look at the risks to what’s living there.”
“This is a really important question for us as a country,” she continued. “We have unique ecosystems and environments and we need to understand how these materials behave in the environment once they are released.”
The risk is not restricted only to wildlife. Visitors to the area are advised not to spend more than an hour a day on either Trimouille or Alhpa Island, and told not to disturb any soils and risk releasing more toxins.
Dr Megan Cook of the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency said: “Because of the radioactivity that is still present at Montebello Islands, the region is not inhabited by humans and has not been developed.
“However, the surrounding waters are visited by fishing boats, so collecting data on the levels of contamination in sea water and marine life is important. Montebello Islands are part of a highly biodiverse marine ecosystem, home to numerous endangered and endemic species.
“This ecological richness leads to precautionary environmental protection, including mapping contamination hotspots, monitoring bioaccumulation in marine life, and assessing ecosystem-level radiation impacts.”
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