OPERATION ORPHEUS test tunnel, callington

kernowexpeditionary · Sep 7, 2008

Visited by myself last year (no access) then by MrB and lycos (see theyre report - "Excelsior tunnel")

I visited in April and once again more recently....

Kit Hill/Excelsior tunnel was built to drain kit hill mine in the 1880's but never finished. A huge amount of water still drains through it however...

In the mid 50's with the cold war at its height, talks to stop nuclear testing started in 58' Dr Latter from the US concluded that is was possible to hide underground explosions with a theory of decoupling between two blasts close together,

the 6x6 test chambers were quickly constructed in the tunnel and testing began.. they may well be the first of its kind worldwide....Enjoy!

BigLoada · Sep 7, 2008

This is brilliant, kit hil was quite an important area in its day for tin and arsenic and other stuff. Underground explosions sounds a bit dodgy though, wouldn't have fancied being involved in that!
Very nice work on lighting the pictures too.

kernowexpeditionary · Sep 10, 2008

thanks m8 i think this is a great site! maybe others dont get it!

Engineer · Sep 10, 2008

Excellsior Tunel

Nice pics, the "Latter de-coupling theory" write up is well worth a read.

I seem to remember there were two fatalities during construction due to bad air or explosive gas residue.

SubVee · Sep 10, 2008

Arsenic?!? I hope you washed yor hands afterwards!?!

Can't beleive how colourful it is down there, you've got some nice shots there

Pegasus2 · Sep 12, 2008

Engineer said:
Nice pics, the "Latter de-coupling theory" write up is well worth a read.

I seem to remember there were two fatalities during construction due to bad air or explosive gas residue.

No radiation hazards there?