Australian Radiation Laboratory estimated that the collective dose to the Australian population due to the test was 110-man-sieverts, statistically enough to have caused one death from cancer. Of the 1,518 personnel involved who were issued with film badges, 1,263 recorded no measurable amount of radiation, and 14 recorded 5 millisieverts (mSv) over the course of the whole operation. None recorded more than 50 mSv. Dosimeters and film badges were not issued to the crews of the RAAF Lincolns who gathered radioactive samples, but later experience showed that exposure would not have been medically significant. Studies of British veterans of all nuclear tests in 1983, 1988, 1993 and 2003 did not find conclusive evidence of increased mortality or health effects. A 2006 study of nearly 11,000 Australian participants of the British nuclear testing program showed that participants had an 18% increased mortality from cancers and a 23% increase in overall cancer incidence, but the increase in cancer mortality and incidence could not be linked to the radiation exposure from nuclear testing, but rather to solar radiation. With the success of Operation Hurricane, Britain became the third nuclear power after the United States and the Soviet Union. The first production bombs, of the Blue Danube design, based on the Hurricane device, were delivered to the RAF in November 1953 and, two years later, the RAF had bombers capable of carrying them. In the interim, the UK relied on the US Strategic Air Command (SAC) for its nuclear deterrent. SAC began deploying nuclear-capable bombers to the UK in April 1949. 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. All the while Britain strove for independence, at the same time it sought interdependence in the form of a renewal of the Special Relationship with the United States. As successful as it was, Operation Hurricane fell short on both counts. Summary Notes References Further reading External links AWE history Original AWE page available from archive.org British nuclear weapons testing in Australia Operation Hurricane – Ministry of Supply made documentary Better quality extract from the same video of the Hurricane Nuclear Test Operation Hurricane by National Archives of Australia – Vimeo Declassified AWRE reports and National Archives files on Operation Hurricane's scientific and civil defence