Operation Totem Cockcroft, the director of the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment at Harwell personally lodged a formal request for a feasibility study with the Prime Minister of Australia, Robert Menzies, at a meeting on 4 September 1952. Other matters discussed included the attendance of Butement and Leslie Martin, the Australian Defence Scientific Adviser, as Australian observers at the Hurricane test, the creation of the Australian Atomic Energy Commission, and the supply of Australian uranium to the UK. Cockcroft reported to Sir Roger Makins at the Foreign Office that Menzies had agreed in principle to Penney's reconnaissance of the Emu Field site. Penney
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