Windscale accident of October

In Fig. 2.5 the fallout of the 137Cs in the pre-1957 oxide particles, is compared with the fallout in the Windscale accident of October 1957. 

Dunster, H.J., Howells, H. Templeton, W.L. (1958) District surveys following the Windscale accident of October 1957. Proceedings Second International Conference on Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy, vol. 18, pp. 296-308. Geneva United Nations. 

In the UK, rainfall of 10-20 mm on 2-4 May gave heavy fallout in the coastal region of Cumbria and Galloway (Clark Smith, 1988). By a coincidence, there was particularly heavy deposition in the hills 20 km SSE of Sellafield, which were also in the path of the emission of October 1957. In this area, there was about 12 kBq m-2 of 137Cs from the Windscale accident (Fig. 2.5), 6 kBq m-2 from distant bomb tests, 1955-65, and 20 kBq m-2 from Chernobyl. Clark Smith estimated the total fallout of 137Cs over the UK at 300 TBq. This compares with about 10 TBq from the Windscale accident and 1000 TBq from weapons tests. 

TNA PRO AB 86/22. Windscale Accident Inquiry transcript of evidence Tuesday, 22 October 1957. 

TNA PRO AB 86/25. Windscale Accident Inquiry Report of the Inquiry, with papers and correspondence belonging to Sir William Penney. Letter from Dr MacLean to the Medical Research Council, 31 October 1957. 

Emission of fission products and other activities during the accident to Windscale Pile No. 1 in October 1957. AERE Report M-3194. Harwell, Oxon. 

Loutit, J.F., Marley, W.G. Russell, R.S. (1960) The nuclear reactor accident at Windscale in October 1957 environmental aspects. In The Hazards to Man of Nuclear and Allied Radiations. Cmnd 1225. London HMSO. 

Only two earlier reactor accidents caused significant releases or radionuclides the one at Windscale (United Kingdom) in October 1957 and the other at Three Mile Island (United States) in March 1979 (UNSCEAR-1982). While it is very difficult to estimate the fraction of the Windscale radionuclide core inventory that was released to the atmosphere, it has been estimated that the accident released twice the amount of noble gases that was released at Chernobyl, but 2,000 times less and Cs (DOE-1987). The Three Mile Island accident released approximately 2% as much noble gases and 0.00002% as much l as the Chernobyl accident. 

N. G. Stewart and R. N. Crooks. Long-range travel of the radioactive cloud from the accident at Windscale. Nature (London) 182, 627 (1958) A, C. Chamberlain and H. J. Dunster, Deposition of radioactivity in North-West England from the accident at Wind-scale. Nature (London) 182,629 (1958) H. J. Dunster, H. Howells, and W. L. Templeton, District surveys following the Windscale incident October 1957. Proc. U.N. Int. Conf. Peaceful Uses At. Energy, 2nd., Geneva Pap. 319 (1958). 

Garland, J.A., Playford, K. (1991). Deposition and resuspension of radiocesium after Chmiobyl. In Proceedings of Seminar on Comparative Assessment of the Environmental Impact of Radionuclides during Three Major Nuclear Accidents Kysthym, Windscale, Chernobyl, Rep. EUR 13574, Luxembourg, 1-5 October 1990, vol. I, pp. 237-253. 

Two years after the 10 October 1957 Windscale military reactor fire and core melt accident formal external regulation of the UK civilian nuclear power industry through the Nuclear Installations Act was enacted in the UK in 1959, under the auspices of the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate. A government press release at the time nevertheless stated that the fire had no bearing on the safety of nuclear power stations being built for electricity authorities . One substantial later implication of the accident was the establishment of the UK National Radiological Protection Board (NRPB) in 1971. 

Windscale nuclear accident The UK s worst nuclear accident, which occurred on 10 October 1957 at the Windscale nuclear power station at Sellafield. The first of two "atomic piles, built in 1950 and 1951 as part of Britain s atomic weapons project, caught fire releasing radioactive material into the environment. The 120-metre-high piles were solid graphite moderated and air cooled with horizontal charmels within which uranium cartridges could be passed and exposed to neutron radiation to produce plutonium. After the accident, pile one was sealed and pile two was permanently shut down shordy after... 

It is 25 years since the nuclear accident at Windscale in October 1957. Until recently there has never been any suggestion that the radioactive releases that took place then produced any serious health effects. Attention has centred throughout on the releases of radioactive iodine and its subsequent ingestion over a wide area of Britain and Western Europe... 

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