Windscale Fire

“Windscale” nuclear construction was launched

1946

• Sellafield in Northern England

First nuclear reactor (Windscale pile) completely built

1950

Second nuclear reactor was commissioned

1951

• Total 4000 tons of graphite was used for 2 Piles
• 7ft thick wall
• 400ft high chimney

Nuclear bomb tested successfully

1952

• Windscale Piles were tested
• Plutonium atomic bomb
• First British nuclear weapon produced

Pile No.2 Problem

1952

• High temperature in the upper region of the core
• More than 140 cartridges fell to outlet ducts

Pile No.1 Heat Problem

1952

• Heat went high in Pile No.1
• Pile No.1 got shut down
• Smoke came out from the core

Special thermocouples got installed

1953

Fans and blowers shut down to solve annealing problems

Accident happened – Fire in No.1 pile

Oct 10, 1957

• 10tons of radioactive (uranium) caught fire, burned for 2 days
• Failed to release stored energy (Wigner Energy), the temperature reached 1300 Celsius degrees
• “Accident ranked a high level of 5 on the International Nuclear Event Scale”

Water filled in the core and cold down reactor by wind pattern (Pile No.1)

Oct 12, 1957

• Pile No. 2 was not damaged
• Judged unsafe, then Pile No.2 got shut down

“Windscale- the Nuclear Laundry”

1983

• Television program
• Presented effects of people younger than 22 between 1954 – 1983 who suffer from windscale incident

Pile Reactors was finally decommissioned

1988

The core was begun dismantling

1997

10 tanks of radioactive waste were enclosed

1998

Pile No.1 was inspected

2007