Plutonium levels at nuclear test site in WA up to 4,500 times higher than rest of coast, study finds

Montebello Islands, where three British nuclear bomb tests were carried out in the 1950s. Photograph: Madison Williams-Hoffman

Samples of marine sediment taken from the location of three 1950s British government nuclear bomb tests off the coast of Western Australia have revealed plutonium levels up to 4,500 times higher than the rest of the coastline.

Sixty six samples were taken from the shallow waters at the Montebello Islands, and scientists are now working to understand how marine life may be being affected by the sediment.