U.S.-U.K. Mutual Defense Agreement Pin Commemorating 50 Years of Collaborated Experiments
Las Vegas, NV: Department of Energy, National National Security Administration, Nevada Nuclear Security Site, 2012. Presumed First thus. Other. Approximately 2.25 inches by 2.5 inches pin in a plastic box of approximately 3 inches by 3 inches. It is shaped like the state of Nevada. It has two pins and backs. The image is the U.K. and U.S. flags above a pair of hands shaking. At the top the text is "NNSS Nevada National Security Site" and at the bottom the text is "50 Years of Collaborated Experiments 2012". The 1958 US–UK Mutual Defense Agreement is a bilateral treaty between the United States and the United Kingdom on nuclear weapons cooperation. It allows the United States and the UK to exchange nuclear materials, technology and information. The treaty was signed on 3 July 1958, after the British hydrogen bomb program successfully tested a hydrogen bomb in Operation Grapple on 8 November 1957. The treaty provided for the sale to the UK of one complete nuclear submarine propulsion plant, plus ten years' supply of enriched uranium to fuel it. Other nuclear material was also acquired from the United States under the treaty. The treaty paved the way for the Polaris Sales Agreement with the UK Polaris program and Trident nuclear programme using American missiles with British nuclear warheads. The most recent renewal extended it to 31 December 2024. The United States and the United Kingdom have long enjoyed a “special relationship” of close partnership, so it seemed natural that the two nations should work together to develop an atomic weapon. Nevertheless, the story of U.S.-U.K. nuclear partnership is one of both collaboration and division. Although British scientists played a crucial role in the success of the Manhattan Project, a desire for secrecy and security prevented permanent nuclear collaboration until 1958. The British atomic bomb was thus both an offshoot of the American program and an independent project. In 1954, Churchill ordered that Britain commence with the development of thermonuclear weapons, and the U.K. successfully tested its first hydrogen bomb on November 8, 1957. By this point, the Soviet Union was also in possession of the hydrogen bomb and had even advanced beyond American technological capabilities with the launch of the world’s first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, in October 1957. Without a clear military advantage, the United States finally agreed in 1958 to share nuclear information with the United Kingdom by amending the Atomic Energy Act of 1946. The same year, the two sides also signed the U.S.-U.K. Mutual Defense Agreement, allowing collaboration on nuclear research as well as the transfer of materials and equipment. After a brief moratorium on nuclear tests, the United Kingdom began conducting joint tests together with the United States in Nevada. British atomic weapons were subsequently modeled on American designs made available by the 1958 agreement. The U.K. also went on to purchase weapons from the U.S., including the submarine-based Polaris missile as well as American delivery systems. Condition: Very good.
Keywords: Nevada National Security Site, NNSS, Collaborative Research, Collaborated Experiments, U.S.-U.K. Mutual Defense Agreement, Collectibles, Nuclear Weapons, Commemorative Pin, National Nuclear Security Administration
[Book #74124]
Price: $35.00