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Maralinga - wow. Today we had a 7 hour tour. The guide, Robin, has had a connection with Maralinga since 1972 and loves the history. He can paint a picture with words. They are slowly getting it set up for tourism and i reckon it's well and truly worth a visit.
We made our own lunch and visited these and other sites:
* The water supply - the plane parking area of the airport was built to catch rain, big drains were built to take the water to a Lough (dam), tanks were built halfway to the village and more tanks in the village. The water is pumped to the halfway tanks where it sits for a long time and is then pumped to the village. The water has been tested and is fit for consumption. It tastes much better than SA water.
* The airport - built in the early '50's to last 30 years. No maintenance has been done on it and it can still be used by heavy planes. It gets checked by engineers regularly.
* Taranaki - bomb site and cleanup site. The pom cleanup and the Aussie cleanup were explained. The plutonium will be toxic for 24,000 years!!! But it's OK where it's buried - it gets checked every year. You can visit the area, but noone can live there.
* Other bomb sites - Robin explained the different methods of exploding the bombs: air balloon, tower, half in the ground (caused a massive crater). All amazing.
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