Windscale reactor

Bismuth was irradiated in the Windscale reactor to make 210Po for use in nuclear weapons, and in the reactor fire of October 1957, an estimated 8.8 TBq (240 Ci) of 210Po was released to atmosphere (Crick Linsley, 1983). The fact that 210Po was released was published at the time (Stewart Crooks, 1958 Blok, 1958). 

Crick, M.J. Linsley, G.S. (1983) An assessment of the radiological impact of the Windscale reactor fire of October, 1957. National Radiological Protection Board, Chilton. Report R-135, Addendum. 

Windscale reactors, and some US reactors of the 1950 period, the fuel was cooled by air blown straight to atmosphere, and no use was made of the heat to produce power. In all power reactors now operating, the coolant is contained in a closed-circuit pressure vessel. Outer containment buildings, which can also withstand some pressure in the event of failure or leakage from the pressure circuit, enclose the US pattern pressurised water and boiling water reactors, but no such provision was made for the Russian boiling water reactor at Chernobyl. All defences (cans, pressure vessel, containment building if provided) must be breached before fission products can be released to atmosphere. 

In comparing the two cases in Table 2.10, it is relevant to note that Seascale is 3 km from Sellafield, the site of the Windscale reactor, whereas Munich is 1400 km from Chernobyl. The calculated contributions of the various pathways were different in the two cases -namely, for adults, Windscale ingestion 66%, inhalation 23%, external radiation 11% Chernobyl ingestion, 23%, inhalation 16%, external 61%. 

Burch, P.R.J. (1959) Measurements at Leeds following the Windscale reactor accident. Nature, 182, 515-19. 

Public interest in radioactive aerosols began in the mid-1950s, when world-wide fallout of fission products from bomb tests was first observed. The H-bomb test at Bikini Atoll in 1954 had tragic consequences for the Japanese fisherman, and the inhabitants of the Ronge-lap Atoll, who were in the path of the fallout. In 1957, radio-iodine and other fission products, released in the accident to the Windscale reactor, were tracked over much of Europe, and these events were repeated on a much larger scale after the Chernobyl accident. 

Baverstock KF, Vennart J. 1976. Emergency reference levels for reactor accidents A re-examination of the windscale reactor accident. Health Phys 30 339-344. 

Activities of the Isotopes Released from the Windscale Reactor Accident, 1957... 

More than 400 civilian power reactors operate in the world today and they have altogether accumulated more than 10000 reactor years of operation. The principal accidents which have occurred are the TMI accident (1979) and the Chernobyl accident (1986). The accident at the experimental Windscale reactor (1957, see Chapter 20) is also an interesting reference for the study of the consequences of serious accidents. 

In his article Polonium Windscale s most lethal legacy John Urquhart has rightly drawn attention to the omission from consideration of polonium 210 in the National Radiological Protection Board s report on the 1957 Windscale reactor fire. 

TNA PRO HP 3/22. National Radiological Protection Board assessment of the radiological impact of the Windscale Reactor Eire, October 1957 the collective radiation dose received by the population allegations regarding European contamination levels question and answer briefs on the Windscale Eire. 

TNA PRO AB 38/35. Windscale Pile No 2 correspondence. Windscale Reactor No. 2 Situation Report. RV Moore, 11 September 1958. 

TNA PRO AB 16/2008. Windscale reactor PIPPA Calder Hall construction (extract from AB 16/2007). 

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