Over the period to the end of 1956, eight such releases were carried out on No. Of the various marks of can present, the most likely to have given trouble was the Mark III, which has a single can holding the alloy in the form of a rod. This was noted by the Physicist who was then on duty, but no special action was taken because he regarded it as the normal consequence of the first movement of air through the pile and up the stack. Certain steps had to be taken before entry could be effected to the charge hoist. It appears also that changes have been made in operating procedures, with a general tendency to push pile temperatures upwards, without complete realisation of all the technical factors involved. This increase was followed by a steady drop in the curve for about two and a half hours after which time stack activity rose steadily to a figure of 30 curies at 16.30 on 10th October. The fall-out pattern as it is now known strongly suggests meteorological conditions of this type. 2008 Jan;99(1):1-6. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvrad.2007.10.002. The scientific analysis was shared between the laboratories at Windscale and at Harwell. In 1956, all graphite thermocouples except one were showing a fall.). Expressed in terms of a maximum permissible exposure to any fission product in the air, by ICRP standards, for lifetime breathing, the values recorded rose from about two at 14.00 on 10th October to values in the region of five to ten during the night, with a few exceptional peaks as high as 150 on the following morning. Because it is so much quicker to make gamma measurements than measurements of air activity, most of the measurements made were of gamma activity in order to cover the greatest possible area. The Management were informed, however, of the danger of releasing high temperature Wigner energy if the graphite temperatures were to rise much higher than 1200 °C. The location of the uranium and graphite thermocouples is shown at appendix B. A thyroid iodine survey was made among the workers and is continuing. Other possible sources of ingestion hazard were examined, in particular vegetables, eggs, meat and water supplies. Being unable to operate the scanning gear, recourse was had to the MX 119 to sample the air coming from the Pile for particulate activity. The Pile Manager informed us that at the end of previous Wigner releases the scanning gear could not be moved, presumably because of over-heating. The evidence so far on radioactive caesium is also satisfactory. Nuclear decommissioning operations commenced in the 1980s and are estimated to … The evidence which we obtained on the Lithium-Magnesium cartridges can be summarised as follows. With peaks occasioned by the successive damper openings, it had reached 85 °C by 08.00 on 10th October. The second nuclear heating led to the accident through a chain of events, and here we must put the possible consequences in order of probability. That steps should be taken to ensure that maximum permissible levels are laid down for all radioactive substances for exposure for a limited period as well as for continuous exposure. Reproduction of the Report (the 'Penney Report') of the Committee of Inquiry (Chairman, Sir William Penney) established by the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA), which reported to the UKAEA on 26 October, 1957. The Windscale Fire . Some of the Mark X fuel cartridges in the affected region had received an average of 287 MWD/tonne. It was considered inadvisable to switch on the main blowers in an endeavour to reduce temperature; in view of the high stack activity, this would probably have caused a serious neighbourhood hazard. Arnold, L. and Cottrell, S. A. Windscale 1957 2016 - Palgrave Macmillan Limited - London We feel that since the Windscale Piles were handed over to the operations staff, other demands on the Industrial Group have been so heavy that insufficient technical attention has been available to ensure the safe operation of the Windscale Piles. One graphite temperature in particular, in channel 20/53, which had shown a reading of about 255 °C at the time when the second nuclear heating was applied, continued to rise steadily, until by 22.00 it had reached a temperature of 405 °C. While in the above conclusions we have naturally concentrated on the faults and deficiencies, we must pay tribute to the efficient and energetic way in which the accident was dealt with once it was appreciated. The high temperature being recorded in channel 20/53 caused the Pile Physicist, at 21.00, to shut the chimney base and the inspection holes to allow the chimney draught to induce some flow of air from the Pile and thus cool it. There was a release to atmosphere of radioactive material that spread across the UK and Europe. You will only need to do this once. Journal of Radiological Protection, There has been no immediate damage to the health of any of the public or of the workers at Windscale, and it is most unlikely that any harmful effects will develop. The Windscale Fire of 1957 marked Great Britain's largest nuclear reactor disaster, ranking level 5 classification on the International Nuclear Event Scale. Also, view the photos. Export citation and abstract Throughout Thursday, 10th October, the ground wind was light, but mainly off-shore, i.e. On the morning of Friday, October 11, 1957, workers at the nuclear reactor Windscale Pile 1 near Seascale, Cumberland, England, faced a terrible choice: allow a raging fire to burn itself out while it released dangerously high levels of ionizing radiation into the surrounding countryside; or, attempt to extinguish the conflagration with water, an option that could cause a hydrogen explosion (again, … J Radiol Prot. Original content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 licence. The shut down fans were switched off and the door in the base of the chimney and the back inspection holes on the Pile roof were opened to minimise coolant air flow through the Pile. At 17.00 the nuclear heating was terminated. Some measurements, however, were made of the air activity on 10th October. The normal practice in pile operation is to limit such rises to 2 °C/minute. COVID-19 is an emerging, rapidly evolving situation. 2020 Jun;40(2):633-645. doi: 10.1088/1361-6498/ab70cc. This reading was mainly due to the activity in the plume. At 19.25 the Pile was made to diverge to generate nuclear heat for triggering off Wigner energy. You do not need to reset your password if you login via Athens or an Institutional login. Witnesses examined (in chronological order). A fire ripped through the radioactive materials in the core of Windscale, … The radiochemical analysis takes time, and so far the two isotopes of strontium have not been measured separately. We have carefully examined the thermocouple records on this point. That this treatment probably led to the immediate bursting of one or more uranium cartridges is deduced from the following. Samples were also taken around the Lancashire Coast, the North Wales Coast, the Isle of Man, and into Yorkshire and the South of Scotland, but there was no necessity to extend the boundaries of restriction. DECISION REPORT Introduction 1. The Windscale fire is one of three nuclear disasters cited by opponents of nuclear power as proof that its risks outweigh its benefits. We would not therefore endorse the observation that the general tendency was for the graphite temperatures to be dropping rather than riseing. A serious fire developed in the core of a nuclear reactor at Windscale Works, Sellafield, northwest England, which led to the release of significant quantities of radioactive material into the environment during 10–11th October, 1957. Windscale Accident Windscale : an accident of the U.K nuclear weapon program (1957) The fire which occurred the 10th of October 1957 on the Windscale site along the Irish Sea in England is an accident of the British military nuclear program at its beginnings. Enough results have now been obtained to suggest that there is no strontium hazard arising from the accident. Once the assumption is made that a single uranium cartridge is ignited, there is no difficulty in visualising several probable routes by which final conflagration can be reached. Would you like email updates of new search results? You appointed the Committee of Enquiry on the 15th October with the following Terms of Reference: 'To investigate the causes of the accident at Windscale No. The highest gamma reading recorded was 4 milli-r per hour on the Bailey Bridge near Sellafield station. Less than two weeks after Kyshtym, a fire broke out in Unit 1 of the two reactors at the Windscale facility located in what is now known as Sellafield, Cumbria UK. We calculated that at that point of peak neutron flux, where a graphite temperature in the vicinity was measured as 315 °C, the uranium temperature could initially have been at 340 °C. However, acting on the observation which he had made, the Physicist in charge decided to boost the release with more nuclear heating. The absence of an operating manual for Wigner releases must be regarded as a serious defect. William Penney1,6, Basil F J Schonland2,6, J M Kay3,6, Jack Diamond4,6 and David E H Peirson5,7, Published 31 August 2017 • Added: Jan-26-2020 By: thecleaner001 (22268.28) Tags: Sunday Cinema, messing about with plutonium, Windscale Piles, it's a miracle they didn't poison everyone, Location: United Kingdom 37 780, 1 The fire took place in Unit 1 of the two-pile Windscale facility on the northwest coast of England in Cumberland (now Sellafield, Cumbria). The original Report of the Committee of Inquiry is reproduced here from a copy of the Report supplied by TNA from TNA File AB 86/25. We understand, moreover, that several of the posts in the Windscale complement under the Works General Manager were unfilled at the time of the accident. Director, Atomic Weapons Research Establishment, Aldermaston, United Kingdom, 2 However, it was shortly afterwards found that in addition to the 21/53 group of channels detected by thermocouple reading, there was a rectangular region of some 40 groups of channels—about 150 channels in all—showing red heat. Originally the procedure was to carry out Wigner releases after 20 000 cumulative megawatt days. The bottom rods were withdrawn and the Pile made divergent at 11.05 with the object of raising the maximum uranium temperature, which at that time was 300 °C to 350 °C. Clipboard, Search History, and several other advanced features are temporarily unavailable. The records from the pile stack activity meter show no special features during the early stages of the operation. NLM The fire brigade was ordered to stand by with all available pumps, and work started on the preparation of equipment to enable water to be injected into the channels which had been discharged. (It should be noted that second nuclear heating had been utilised during three previous Wigner releases. The steps taken to deal with the accident, once it had been discovered, were prompt and efficient and displayed considerable devotion to duty on the part of all concerned. Professor of Engineering (Nuclear), Imperial College of Science and Technology, London, United Kingdom, 4 The UK government under Harold Macmillanordered original reports into the fire to be heavily censored and information about the incident to be kept largely secret, and it later came to light that small but significa… HHS including the accident), only 14 of the workers concerned in the accident exceeded the maximum permissible level. This was carried out between 11.05 and 17.00 on Tuesday, 8th October, when parts of the pile were still rising in temperature. There are quite a few available. On 7th October at 01.13 the Pile was shut down and the main blowers switched off in the preparation for the Wigner release. But on the fourth opening of the dampers (at 05.10 on Thursday, 10th October), lasting for 30 minutes, a sufficient flow of air was established through the pile to carry a cloud of gaseous fission products and also some particulate activity up to the filter at the top of the chimney. A note of wind directions is necessary to appreciate some of the developments concerning public health. The accident ranked a high level of 5 on the International Nuclear Event Scale. 2016 Dec;36(4):E23-E25. NE or NNE. 1 Pile charge hoist, standard procedure for health control was instituted. By Friday morning, he had obtained the first analysis of the milk samples and the first results on the activity collected from the air in the Windscale Works. No worker had to be detained after the accident. Windscale fire, accident in 1957 at the Windscale nuclear reactor facility and plutonium -production plant in the county of Cumberland (now part of Cumbria), in northwestern England, that was the United Kingdom’s most serious nuclear power accident. The procedure for Wigner release is to concentrate as much flux, and therefore as much heat as possible, in the front lower region of the Pile by suitable manipulation of the lower coarse control rods, the upper control rods having been disconnected when fully in. Brief instructions, such as the minute reproduced in appendix. Moreover we are not properly constituted to recommend detailed organisational changes. We visited No. In 1957, one of the two reactors built at Windscale was destroyed by fire, in the world's first major nuclear accident. In 1957, Windscale Works was operated by the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA), and on 15th October it was announced by the Chairman of the UKAEA that a Committee of Inquiry had been established under the chairmanship of Sir William Penney to conduct an investigation into the accident. That a Technical Evaluation Working Party should be set up within the Authority to make an urgent and thorough study of all the technical information to be derived from the accident. A few men were not wearing head film badges, although they were wearing the normal type of film badge. The situation is similar to that among the people at the works. With sound undamaged cartridges the number of failures at this temperature would be extremely small, but with burst cartridges oxidation would be inevitable at 400 °C and would accelerate rapidly at higher temperatures. These men might have had a dose to their heads, somewhere between 0.1 r and 0.5 r, in addition to the whole body dose recorded by their film badges. Two subsidiary measures were attempted with no success. At the time of the accident, all these channels were empty except one, which contained a small magnet under test. The thermocouple reading was reduced to 334 °C within 10 minutes by adjustment of the control rods. In 1957, Windscale Works was operated by the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA), and on 15th October it was announced by the Chairman of the UKAEA that a Committee of Inquiry had been established under the chairmanship of Sir William Penney to conduct an investigation into the accident. Click here to close this overlay, or press the "Escape" key on your keyboard. At 13.45, the shut down fans were switched on as a preliminary move in an attempt either to use the scanning gear to detect any burst cartridges or alternatively to blow the Pile cool. At about 15.00 on Thursday 10th October, a survey van was sent out to make district surveys in the down-wind direction of the ground winds, i.e. Evidence was given to us that under normal operating conditions in the Windscale piles, bursts of this type of cartridge occur very infrequently at doses below 280 MWD/tonne, but that at higher dose rates bursts become increasingly frequent. The possibility of a local large release of Wigner energy in a pocket of graphite which had escaped previous annealing has been considered by us in the light of both thermocouple readings, laboratory data and general information. During this period, the intermittent supply of air to the pile caused an accelerated rate of oxidation of the smouldering uranium fuel elements in the affected zone. A second van was sent out at about 17.00 to the north of the factory, and likewise spent most of its efforts in measuring gamma activity in order to delimit the contaminated area. Once a cartridge had failed, whether it were Uranium or Lithium-Magnesium, the burning of the graphite would make some addition to the heat being released and would make its contribution to the development of the fire. http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/, A review of irradiated fuel particle releases from the Windscale Piles, 1950–1957, Discharges to the environment from the Sellafield site, 1951-1992, Classification of events with an off-site radiological impact at the Sellafield site between1950 and 2000, using the International Nuclear Event Scale, A double diamond anniversary—Kyshtym and Windscale: the nuclear accidents of 1957, The role of chemistry in a nuclear energy project, The measures taken to deal with the accident, The measures taken to protect the workers, Senior Scientific Officer (R & DB), Windscale, Deputy Head of Laboratories (R & DB), Springfields, Deputy Head of Laboratories (R & DB), Windscale, Senior Principal Scientific Officer (R & DB), Windscale, Atomic Energy Research Establishment, Harwell, Chief Production Controller, Industrial Group, Deputy Director Chemical Plants, Industrial Group, Technical Class Grade II (Pile), Windscale, Manager (Health Physics & Safety), Windscale, Training and Safety Officer, R & D, Windscale, Senior Scientific Officer (R & D), Windscale. 302) published on 8th November, 1957, but the Penney Report itself was not published, and was only made public (at what is now The National Archives, TNA, Kew) in January, 1988. The responsibilities of the Works General Manager include the Calder Hall and Chapelcross reactors as well as Windscale. That the responsibilities within the Authority for control of health and safety should be clarified. This was the major decision and it was supported by the Director of Production and the Deputy Works General Manager. The value of 2 was never again exceeded and most of the readings were about ¼ or less. As the analyses were completed, the restriction on distribution had to be extended in successive stages, until by Monday morning it covered a coastal strip approximately thirty miles long, ten miles broad at the southern end and six miles broad in the north. By this means, the graphite is brought up to a temperature at which Wigner release is started. No established tolerance level existed for radioactive iodine in milk but the Health Physics Manager had in mind paper ARC/RBC 5 by Dr Scott-Russell, which suggested 0.39, The first analysis of milk showed iodine 131 contents ranging from traces to 0.48, There followed several hours of consultation by telephone and by meetings between the medical and health physics experts, in order to establish the limit of radio-iodine content beyond which milk should be taken out of distribution. During the morning of 11th October, the Windscale and Calder canteen managers consulted the Medical Department about their food supplies. This showed a large positive reading. A catastrophic meltdown was … The sample gave a count of 3000. Measurements of the radioactivity of the cloud from the accident at Windscale Works (Sellafield, England) in October 1957: data submitted to the International Geophysical Year (IGY; July 1957-December 1958). By 03.44, the water hoses were ready to be coupled at 15 minutes notice. PS. By about midnight the Works General Manager had decided that if the other measures failed to secure a reduction in temperature, water should be used. According to the QFE readings, two workers received 4.5 R during the accident, one 3.3 R, and there were four others in excess of 2 R. All the workers who received doses in excess of the maximum permissible level have been taken out of contact with work involving radiation, in accordance with standard procedure. 1 Pile, the scene of the accident, and also No. The temperature of fuel channel 21/53 had been recording very rapid increases until at 16.30 it was in the neighbourhood of 450 °C. Over the next two hours, 'brute force' efforts were successful in discharging nearly all the top row of burning elements, but the fire continued unabated elsewhere. It is to be expected that slow combustion continued during the period of stagnant air conditions until 22.15 on 9th October, when the shut down air dampers were first opened to admit air to the pile. Until more experience had been obtained, it was decided that the next release should be at 40 000 megawatt days. The Windscale fire and the ensuing fallout, are estimated to have caused at least 190 cases of cancer, more than half of which were fatal. The Health Physics Manager was satisfied, from the district measurements already mentioned, that no district radiation or inhalation hazard existed: there was therefore no occasion to issue a district emergency warning, which would have caused unnecessary alarm. Isotope cartridge other than the Lithium-Magnesium could have added considerably to the immediate of. Surrounding the Works of young children, at 01.33 on 11th October to avoid a criticality hazard the. Be moved SW direction fire, in ten days been able to make a technical. 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