Around 215 kms from Coober Pedy traveling west, the sandhills you have been traveling over will give way to a wide chaeonopod saltbush plain, intersperesed with myall treesacacia papyrocarpa. If you are heading east, you will pass some saline depressions, and limestone ridges covered with large casaurina trees.
Little remains at Ground Zero other than two concrete obelisks commemorating the blast sites of Totem 1 and Totem 2. Twisted steel anchor bolts are all that remain of the detonation towers, everything else was vaporized or removed during the clean up operations. There are no trees at the site. A short distance from ground zero there are a few concrete anchors, and further back some warning signs. 16 kilometers west along the Ann Beadell Highway you will come to Emu claypan on the right. The claypan is still strewn with flotsam and jetsam, including 44 gallon drums, and surprisingly an old set of scales.
Uphill to the south of the claypan is the campsite, although almost nothing now remains of the tent city that was built on the site in 1953
The two major trial sites at Emu have radiation levels which exceed the levels acceptable for permanent occupation. There is considerable evidence on the ground surrounding the sites of what is known as glazing, which is a glassy substance formed from alumino-silicates in soil as a result of heating by nuclear explosion. Glazing at Emu is considered dangerous. At the kitten sites there is a quantity of Beryllium, the main danger of which is inhalation of the dust and its salts. Emu is considered safe to visit, however the immediate area is unsuitable for camping, and care should be made not to raise dust when traveling close to the blast sites. |
|
