clean-up of the remote south-western Australian testing site. Boundary markers still indicate "lightly contaminated" areas which are suitable for transit but not residence. The clean-up followed an official inquiry into the British testing at Maralinga, where contamination forced the indigenous Maralinga Tjarutja people to leave their land. The Australian government said the removal and burial of contaminated soil had been completed at Maralinga, where seven atomic devices and about 700 minor trials were detonated. In situ vitrification of 21 contaminated burial pits, which involves converting the pits into an impermeable glass to trap the contamination, would begin later this year, he said. Australia has accepted A$45 million (US$29.7 million) compensation from Britain to clean up the contaminated site. Aborigines affected by the tests have accepted A$13.5 million (US$8.9 million) from the Australian government. Maralinga, an Aboriginal word for thunder, was the test site for British nuclear weapons from 1953 to 1963.