Undoubtedly, some of the graphite temperatures were falling and there were some in which no Wigner release was apparent; but a substantial number of the graphite thermocouple readings showed steady increases. 1 Pile. 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. This was the major decision and it was supported by the Director of Production and the Deputy Works General Manager. Windscale Pile No. The highest readings on the morning of 11th October were around the chemical plants and the Calder site. On 10th October, between 11.00 and 14.00, a 3 hour air sample was taken outside the Health Physics Administration building. The maximum uranium temperature after the sudden nuclear heating could thus have been as much as 450 °C for some minutes. At 05.40, at the end of the fourth damper opening, there was a sharp increase of six curies. Throughout Sunday and Monday, milk samples were collected from farms at increasing distances from Windscale. 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. J Environ Radioact. 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. In the evening, extra staff were called in to man the surgery to deal with any severe cases of exposure, but there were none. 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. 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 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. A few men were not wearing head film badges, although they were wearing the normal type of film badge. NIH 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. Conscious of the great public anxiety concerning this accident, we felt we should report as soon as we had been able to consider the technical evidence sufficiently to discharge our terms of reference. The combined effect of the distortion of neutron flux together with the transfer of the point of maximum temperature to coincide with the point of maximum flux resulted in the position of maximum uranium temperature occurring some seven feet nearer the front face of the Pile than the thermocouple positions. 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. The Windscale Works Technical Committee, in September 1957, considered a paper (reference IGR-TN/W.586) which recommended an increase to 50 000 cumulative megawatt days in view of the increasing difficulties of obtaining a successful release. At 02.30, when the activity appeared to be somewhat reduced, workers were instructed to remove face masks and to hold them ready. 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. At 05.40, a sharp increase was recorded on the pile stack activity meter. 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. Secondly, a tanker of CO. (We recognise that the responsibility for this does not rest solely with the Authority.). Akasha Purohit and Kelly Meehan HISTORY The Windscale Fire took place at the Windscale nuclear processing plant in Cumberland, which is known as Cumbria today. The Committee reported to the Chairman of the UKAEA on 26th October. (It should be noted that second nuclear heating had been utilised during three previous Wigner releases. The Windscale fire of 10 October 1957 was the worst nuclear accident in Great Britain's history, and one of the worst in the world, ranked in severity at level 5 out of … At the material time, the Pile contained natural uranium and slightly enriched (1.28 Co) uranium in the fuel cartridges and a considerable variety of isotope cartridges. 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 Windscale fire of 10 October 1957 was the worst nuclear accident in Great Britain's history, and one of the worst in the world, ranked in severity at level 5 out of … Authority Secretary, United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority, United Kingdom, Received 6 June 2017 They were opened again for 10 minutes at 00.01 on 10th October, for 13 minutes at 02.15 and for 30 minutes at 05.10. There was no contamination, however, inside the buildings. By 12.00 on 11th October, the air activity was dropping fast and the value was one to two. In our opinion, he correctly decided that irradiation and inhalation were likely to prove well within acceptable limits for the district, and that the main concern should be ingestion. The Pile is a very large structure, and during a Wigner release operation it is frequently necessary for the people in charge of the release to climb some 70 feet to the roof in order to inspect the thermocouple readings. At 440 °C, all cartridges tested failed within 34 hours; at 450 °C, all failed in a few hours and some caught fire. Also, view the photos. During the night it changed to NNW, and throughout Friday a 10 knot wind blew, mainly NW and NNW, i.e. The change is an 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. The picture we have formed of this phase of the incident is as follows. 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. The normal practice in pile operation is to limit such rises to 2 °C/minute. 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. 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. We also consider that the origin lay in the region of the Pile just below the middle plane and towards the front. 1 Pile charge hoist, standard procedure for health control was instituted. J Radiol Prot. Will you please issue the following operating instructions to the operator engaged in controlling the Wigner energy release. The location of the uranium and graphite thermocouples is shown at appendix B. A Wigner release therefore became due in October, 1957. Other possible sources of ingestion hazard were examined, in particular vegetables, eggs, meat and water supplies. The values were patchy and varied with time. Director, Atomic Weapons Research Establishment, Aldermaston, United Kingdom, 2 The fire took place in Unit 1 of the two-pile Windscale facility on the northwest coast of England in Cumberland (now Sellafield, Cumbria). On 7th October at 01.13 the Pile was shut down and the main blowers switched off in the preparation for the Wigner release. However, by making a reasonable partition of the activity marked between these two isotopes, the first 25 results which have so far been obtained show levels are at most one-tenth of the maximum permissible body burden. The general procedure has been to shut down the Pile, to arrange the appropriate instrumentation and then to cause the Pile to diverge with no coolant air flow, thus raising the graphite and uranium temperatures. 2004;72(1-2):97-102. doi: 10.1016/S0265-931X(03)00190-5. We have not, however, in ten days been able to make a full technical assessment of all aspects of this matter. Originally the procedure was to carry out Wigner releases after 20 000 cumulative megawatt days. RIS. A note of wind directions is necessary to appreciate some of the developments concerning public health. 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. The uranium thermocouples were installed in all cases in cartridges about 16 feet from the front face of the Pile, where the maximum temperatures occur under normal operating conditions. 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. 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. Moreover, it appears to us to be unsatisfactory that tolerance levels in respect of several of the possible hazards should have had to be worked out in haste after the accident happened. The marine environment of the Irish Sea also suffered from the disaster, as well as from countless other spills, leaks, incidents and the deliberate or accidental discharge of radioactive effluent. 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. The thermocouples used for the following Wigner releases were then checked, and those which were unserviceable were replaced. The Report was made public in January, 1988, and the original can be found in The National Archives File AB 86/25. That Pile No. Export citation and abstract The shut down fans had to be kept on, however, in order to maintain tolerable working conditions on the charge hoist.  |  During the morning of 11th October, the Windscale and Calder canteen managers consulted the Medical Department about their food supplies. And, Windscale proved to be the physical and political reason for these successes. 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. 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. 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. Nuclear heating was maintained at a lower level until 17.00, and during this period the highest uranium thermocouple readings rose to about 345 °C. At 01.38 the graphite in channel 20/53, near the top of the 'hot' area, showed a temperature of 1000 °C, and a fuel element temperature of 1300 °C was recorded by optical pyrometer. By this means, the graphite is brought up to a temperature at which Wigner release is started. 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. Most of the graphite temperatures rose in the manner normal in Wigner releases. It was represented to us that warning of an emergency ought to have been conveyed to the inhabitants of the area surrounding the Works. We consider that the evidence points to the initiation of the fire being the result of the failure of the can of a fuel element giving rise to oxidation. 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. Parallel with the measurements of iodine activity are similar measurements on the two strontium isotopes Sr89 and Sr90. At about the same time, a high activity reading on the Meteorological Station roof was reported. At 17.00 the nuclear heating was terminated. 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. Over the 13 week period up to the 24th October, 1957 (i.e. 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. Volume 37, For this reason, we consider it unlikely that the lithium-magnesium cartridges were the immediate cause of the fire. Nuclear decommissioning operations commenced in the 1980s and are estimated to … The uranium thermocouple readings show a sharp temperature increase when the Pile diverged for the second time. During these openings, the second and very large increase in stack activity, which has already been mentioned, was noted. J Environ Radioact. In addition, we visited the Health Physics Centre to inspect the records of monitoring surveys which had been carried out outside the Factory. The accident ranked a high level of 5 on the International Nuclear Event Scale. The radiochemical analysis takes time, and so far the two isotopes of strontium have not been measured separately. By 03.44, the water hoses were ready to be coupled at 15 minutes notice. (reprinted with permission from Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists,June 1978) The Windscale Report: a nuclear apologia Walter C. Patterson For the past year the British government has been congratulating itself in public about its handling of civil nuclear controversy in … The Windscale Fire of 1957 marked Great Britain's largest nuclear reactor disaster, ranking level 5 classification on the International Nuclear Event Scale. 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. 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. The Windscale plant consisted of two gas-cooled nuclear reactors. 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