Outback Aussie soil still radioactive 65 years after UK bomb tests

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Soil in Australian outback could STILL be leaking plutonium 65 years after British nuclear tests

  • In the 1950s, the UK conducted nuclear tests in a remote area of south Australia
  • The land was given to Indigenous Australians in the 1980s but experts say radiation still poses a health threat
  • ‘Hot particles,’ microscopic bits of plutonium and uranium, are in the soil and groundwater
  • The harsh environment can cause the slow release of plutonium from those hot particles 
  • Long-term exposure can cause radiation sickness, lung cancer and genetic damage

Almost 60 years after nuclear tests in the Australian outback, radioactive particles still pose a risk to wildlife and residents, according to new report.

In the mid-1950s, Great Britain tested nuclear weapons at Maralinga, a remote area about 500 miles northwest of Adelaide.

Radioactive waste dotted the landscape for decades and the Australian government has spent millions on cleanup.

But researchers have discovered ‘hot particles,’ microscopic bits of plutonium and uranium, are still leaking into the soil and groundwater. 


In 1956 and 1957, the British government conducted more than a half-dozen nuclear tests in Maralinga, a remote area in South Australia

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