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 Hurricane Operation Mosaic →

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.