No nuclear bombs have been dropped in Australia as weapons of war, but the British government conducted 12 major nuclear weapons tests and hundreds of minor trials in Australia between 1952 and 1963 at the Montebello Islands, Emu Field, and Maralinga, causing significant radioactive contamination and long-term health issues for Indigenous communities and workers.
Atomic detonations (major trials)
In total, 12 atomic detonations of nuclear devices occurred of varying sizes (yields) across Australia.
As a non-nuclear-weapon state, Australia engages with other countries to advocate for disarmament and non-proliferation. Australia consistently promotes cooperation within the existing disarmament architecture based on the cornerstone Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT).
Since 1950, there have been 32 nuclear weapon accidents, known as "Broken Arrows." A Broken Arrow is defined as an unexpected event involving nuclear weapons that result in the accidental launching, firing, detonating, theft, or loss of the weapon. To date, six nuclear weapons have been lost and never recovered.
Russia and the United States together possess nearly 90% of the world's nuclear weapons, with Russia holding the largest total stockpile and the U.S. having a substantial number of deployed strategic warheads, making them the dominant nuclear powers by far, despite other nations like China, the UK, France, India, Pakistan, Israel, and North Korea also having nuclear arsenals.
The "two-man rule" in nuclear operations is a security protocol requiring at least two authorized, trained personnel to be present and cooperate to perform critical tasks, like accessing or launching nuclear weapons, preventing any single person from acting alone to prevent accidental or unauthorized use, often involving separate keys, codes, or physical actions for each person. This system ensures checks and balances, seen in missile silo crews turning separate keys or submarines requiring dual authentication, creating a fail-safe against individual error or malice.
-Former Russian security advisor Alexander Lebed once claimed that up to 100 “suitcase bombs” were lost, though Russia denied this. -More tangibly, two nuclear-armed torpedoes were lost aboard the Soviet submarine Komsomolets in 1989.
Historical close calls
Yes, Chernobyl is still highly radioactive in many areas, especially near the damaged reactor, but radiation levels vary significantly; some parts of the exclusion zone have contamination low enough for potential limited agriculture, while a 2025 drone strike damaged the New Safe Confinement (NSC) structure, raising concerns about long-term containment, although immediate levels stayed stable as the NSC's function is to contain the original sarcophagus's radioactive material, not the entire zone.
It is jointly operated by Australia and the United States, and since 1988 it has been officially called the Joint Defence Facility Pine Gap (JDFPG); previously, it was known as Joint Defence Space Research Facility.
While nuclear generation is well established in many countries, it has never been deployed in Australia. We currently lack the trained workforce and technical capability required for building a large-scale nuclear reactor. Any attempt to go nuclear would leave Australia reliant on foreign companies and expertise.
Nine countries possess nuclear weapons: the United States, Russia, France, China, the United Kingdom, Pakistan, India, Israel, and North Korea. In total, the global nuclear stockpile is close to 13,000 weapons.
Australia is only really likely to be attacked with nuclear weapons in the event of a nuclear war in which the United States is already engaged and then only by virtue of its alliance relationship with that country.
During the final stages of World War II in 1945, the United States conducted atomic raids on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the first on August 6, 1945, and the second on August 9, 1945. These two events were the only times nuclear weapons have been used in combat.
Integrated Air and Missile Defence is designed to unite multiple capabilities across the joint force to protect a given area against rapidly advancing air and missile threats.
“I don't know what weapons World War III will be fought with, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.” It's always an advantage in any philosophical debate to have the last word.
The Doomsday Clock is currently set at 89 seconds to midnight, its closest point ever, as announced by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists in January 2025, reflecting extreme dangers from nuclear weapons, climate change, disruptive technologies like AI, and biological threats. This represents a one-second shift closer to "doomsday" from its previous setting of 90 seconds, indicating heightened global catastrophe risk, according to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.
World War II started with Germany's invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939, triggering declarations of war from Britain and France, but it was the culmination of aggressive expansion by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, fueled by unresolved issues from World War I and failures of international diplomacy. Hitler's ambition for European dominance and expansion (Lebensraum) led to this invasion, using a new tactic called blitzkrieg (lightning war).
The United States is reportedly missing six nuclear bombs to date. Although there were rumors that the bomb was retrieved by a Soviet submarine, no evidence has been found to support this, so it is still accepted that the Tybee bomb remains in its original dropped location.
On 6 August, 1945, the United States became the first - and to date only - country to use nuclear weapons in war by dropping a uranium bomb over the city of Hiroshima. The bomb killed more than 140,000 over the course of the next few months, and devastated the city beyond recognition.
After the Little Boy atomic bomb designed at Los Alamos was dropped on Hiroshima, Oppenheimer talked to assembled workers and said he was “proud” and his only regret was not getting the bomb fast enough to use against the Germans.
Since I do not foresee that atomic energy is to be a great boon for a long time, I have to say that for the present it is a menace. Perhaps it is well that it should be. It may intimidate the human race into bringing order into its international affairs, which, without the pressure of fear, it would not do.
In 1983, Soviet officer Stanislav Petrov trusted his intuition and called a warning of an incoming missile a false alarm. On the evening of September 26, 1983, Soviet officer Stanislav Petrov took his seat for a 12-hour shift at the Serpukhov-15 command center near Moscow.
100 Feet (30 Meters) and Beyond: For maximum safety, especially against modern megaton-class nuclear weapons, bunkers should be at least 100 feet deep or more. This depth provides substantial protection from the blast effects and radiation.