Operation Mosaic The first British atomic bomb was tested in Operation Hurricane at the Monte Bello Islands in Western Australia on 3 October 1952. Britain thereby became the third nuclear power after the United States and the Soviet Union, but just four weeks after Operation Hurricane, the United States successfully demonstrated a hydrogen bomb. The technology mastered in Operation Hurricane was six years old, and with the hydrogen bomb in hand, the US Congress saw no benefit in renewing cooperation with the UK. All the while Britain strove for independence, at the same time it sought interdependence in the form of a
Operation Upshot–Knothole Operation Upshot–Knothole Operation Upshot–Knothole was a series of eleven nuclear test shots conducted in 1953 at the Nevada Test Site. It followed "Operation Ivy" and preceded "Operation Castle". Over 21,000 soldiers took part in the ground exercise Desert Rock V in conjunction with the "Grable" shot. "Grable" was a 280mm shell fired from the "Atomic Cannon" and was viewed by a number of high-ranking military officials. The test series was notable as containing the first time an atomic artillery shell was fired (shot "Grable"), the first two shots (both fizzles) by University of California Radiation Laboratory—Livermore (now Lawrence Livermore National