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= Sellafield =
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Introduction
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Sellafield, formerly known as Windscale, is a large multi-function
nuclear site close to Seascale on the coast of Cumbria, England. As of
August 2022, primary activities are nuclear waste processing and
storage and nuclear decommissioning. Former activities included
nuclear power generation from 1956 to 2003, and nuclear fuel
reprocessing from 1952 to 2022.
The licensed site covers an area of 265 ha, and comprises more than
200 nuclear facilities and more than 1,000 buildings. It is Europe's
largest nuclear site and has the most diverse range of nuclear
facilities in the world on a single site. The site's workforce size
varies, and before the COVID-19 pandemic was approximately 10,000
people. The UK's National Nuclear Laboratory has its Central
Laboratory and headquarters on the site.
Originally built as a Royal Ordnance Factory in 1942, the site briefly
passed into the ownership of Courtaulds for rayon manufacture
following World War II, but was re-acquired by the Ministry of Supply
in 1947 for the production of plutonium for nuclear weapons which
required the construction of the Windscale Piles and the First
Generation Reprocessing Plant, and it was renamed "Windscale Works".
Subsequent key developments have included the building of Calder Hall
nuclear power station - the world's first nuclear power station to
export electricity on a commercial scale to a public grid, the Magnox
fuel reprocessing plant, the prototype Advanced Gas-cooled Reactor
(AGR) and the Thermal Oxide Reprocessing Plant (THORP).
Decommissioning projects include the Windscale Piles, Calder Hall
nuclear power station, and historic reprocessing facilities and waste
stores.
The site is owned by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) which
is a non-departmental public body of the UK government. Following a
period 2008-2016 of management by a private consortium, the site was
returned to direct government control by making the Site Management
Company, Sellafield Ltd, a subsidiary of the NDA. Decommissioning of
legacy facilities, some of which date back to the UK's first efforts
to produce an atomic bomb, is planned for completion by 2120 at a cost
of £121billion.
Sellafield was the site in 1957 of one of the world's worst nuclear
incidents. This was the Windscale fire which occurred when uranium
metal fuel ignited inside Windscale Pile no.1. Radioactive
contamination was released into the environment, which it is now
estimated caused around 240 cancers in the long term, with 100 to 240
of these being fatal. The incident was rated 5 out of a possible 7 on
the International Nuclear Event Scale.
Royal Ordnance Factory
========================
The site was established with the creation of Royal Ordnance Factory
ROF Sellafield by the Ministry of Supply in 1942; built by John Laing
& Son at the hamlet of Low Sellafield. The nearby sister factory,
ROF Drigg, had been constructed in 1940, 3 mi to the south-east near
the village of Drigg. Both sites were classed as Explosive ROFs,
producing high-explosive at ROF Drigg, and propellant at ROF
Sellafield. They were built in this location to be remote from large
centres of population because of the hazardous nature of the process,
and to reduce the risk of World War II enemy air attack. There were
also existing rail links, and a good supply of high quality water from
Wastwater. Production ceased at both factories immediately following
the defeat of Japan.
Start of nuclear activity
===========================
After the War, the Sellafield site was briefly in the ownership of
Courtaulds for development as a rayon factory, but was re-acquired by
the Ministry of Supply for the production of plutonium for nuclear
weapons. Construction of the nuclear facilities commenced in
September 1947 and the site was renamed Windscale Works. The building
of the nuclear plant was a huge construction project, requiring a peak
effort of 5,000 workers. The two air-cooled and open-circuit,
graphite-moderated Windscale reactors (the "Windscale Piles") and the
associated First Generation Reprocessing Plant, producing the first
British weapons grade plutonium-239, were central to the UK nuclear
weapons programme of the 1950s.
Windscale Pile No.1 became operational in October 1950, just over
threeyears from the start of construction, and Pile No.2 became
operational in June 1951.
Calder Hall power station
===========================
With the creation of the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority
(UKAEA) in 1954, ownership of Windscale Works passed to the UKAEA. At
this time the site was being expanded across the River Calder where
four Magnox reactors were being built to create the world's first
commercial-scale nuclear power station. This became operational in
1956 and was the world's first nuclear power station to export
electricity on a commercial scale to a public grid. The whole site
became known as "Windscale and Calder Works".
British Nuclear Fuels Ltd (BNFL)
==================================
Following the break-up of the UKAEA into a research division (UKAEA)
and a newly created company for nuclear production British Nuclear
Fuels Ltd (BNFL) in 1971, a major part of the site was transferred to
BNFL ownership and management. In 1981 BNFL's Windscale and Calder
Works was renamed Sellafield as part of a major reorganisation of the
site and there was a consolidation of management under one head of the
entire BNFL Sellafield site. The remainder of the site remained in the
hands of the UKAEA and was still called Windscale.
Reprocessing
==============
Sellafield was the centre of UK nuclear reprocessing operations, which
separated the uranium and plutonium from minor actinides and fission
products present in spent nuclear fuel. The uranium could be used in
the manufacture of new nuclear fuel, or in applications where its
density was an asset. The plutonium was originally used for weapons,
and later in the manufacture of mixed oxide fuel (MOX) for thermal
reactors.
Reprocessing ceased on 17 July 2022, when the Magnox Reprocessing
Plant completed its last batch of fuel after 58years of operation. In
January 2025, the government announced that the 140 tonnes civil
plutonium stockpile produced by reprocessing, originally considered a
valuable asset, would be immobilised and eventually disposed of in a
geological disposal facility, rather than used to produce MOX fuel
which was evaluated as an uneconomic option.
Sellafield Site has had three separate fuel reprocessing facilities:
# First Generation (Windscale): 1951-1973 - production of Plutonium
for weapons. 750tonnes fuel per year
# Magnox: 1964-2022 - Magnox national reactor fleet fuel reprocessing
# Thermal Oxide Reprocessing Plant (THORP): 1994-2018 - National AGR
fleet oxide fuel reprocessing
Magnox and THORP had a combined annual capacity of nearly 2,300tonnes.
Despite the end of reprocessing, Sellafield is still the central
location which receives and stores used fuel from the UK's fleet of
gas cooled reactor stations.
The site has also processed overseas spent fuel from several countries
under contract. There had been concern that Sellafield would become a
repository for unwanted international nuclear material. However,
contracts agreed since 1976 with overseas customers required that all
High Level Waste be returned to the country of origin. The UK retained
low and intermediate level waste resulting from that reprocessing, and
in substitution shipped out a radiologically equivalent amount of its
own HLW. The policy was designed to be environmentally neutral by
expediting, and reducing the volume, of shipments.
Decommissioning
=================
Nuclear decommissioning is the process whereby a nuclear facility is
dismantled to the point that it no longer requires measures for
radiation protection. Sellafield's highest priority nuclear
decommissioning challenges are mainly the legacy of the early nuclear
research and nuclear weapons programmes. There is a considerable
inventory of buildings which have ceased operating but are in "care
and maintenance" awaiting final decommissioning.
The 2018-2021 NDA business plan for Sellafield decommissioning is
focused on older legacy high hazard plants and includes the following
key activities in the area of Legacy Ponds and Silos;
* Pile Fuel Storage Pond (PFSP): Sustain sludge exports and prepare
for de-watering
* Pile Fuel Cladding Silo (PFCS): Complete commissioning of Box
Encapsulation Plant to receive silo contents, and begin retrievals.
* First Generation Magnox Storage Pond (FGMSP): Continue to retrieve
fuel and sludge.
* Magnox Swarf Storage Silo (MSSS): Begin retrievals from the silo.
Also:
* Continue demolition of Pile No.1 chimney
Defuelling and removal of most buildings at Calder Hall is expected to
take until 2032, followed by a care and maintenance phase from 2033 to
2104. Demolition of reactor buildings and final site clearance is
planned for 2105 to 2114.
As of March 2021, the NDA reported that they had:
* Removed significant quantities of bulk fuel and over 300tonnes of
solid intermediate level waste (ILW) from the PFSP
* Removed more than 100 m3 of sludge from the FGMSP
* Installed the first of the 400-tonne silo emptying plants in the
MSSS. The retrievals started in June 2022; it is estimated this phase
will continue for 20years.
* Created new access and equipment installed for waste retrieval from
the PFCS
In August 2023, work started to retrieve waste from the PFCS, which
had been created in the 1950s to store cladding from used Windscale
Piles nuclear fuel, described as "a momentous milestone in the
decommissioning story at Sellafield as the first batch of waste was
successfully retrieved from the site’s oldest waste store" and "one of
the most complex and difficult decommissioning challenges in the
world".
Management model following the Energy Act 2004
================================================
Following ownership by BNFL, since 1 April 2005 the site has been
owned by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA), a
non-departmental public body of the UK government created by the
Energy Act 2004 as part of government policy to introduce competition
into the nuclear industry to better control decommissioning costs. In
2008, the NDA awarded Nuclear Management Partners (NMP) the position
of Parent Body Organisation of Sellafield Ltd under their standard
management model for NDA sites; this gave them complete responsibility
for operating and managing the NDA-owned assets, the direct workforce
and the site. This consortium, composed of US company URS, British
company AMEC and French company Areva, was initially awarded a
contract for fiveyears, with extension options to 17years, and in
November 2008, NMP took over management of the site. In October 2008,
it was revealed that the British government had agreed to issue the
managing body for Sellafield an unlimited indemnity against future
accidents; according to 'The Guardian', "the indemnity even covers
accidents and leaks that are the consortium's fault." The indemnity
had been rushed through prior to the summer parliamentary recess
without notifying parliament.
On 13 January 2015, the NDA announced that NMP would lose the
management contract for Sellafield as the "complexity and technical
uncertainties presented significantly greater challenges than other
NDA sites", and the site was therefore "less well suited" to the NDA's
existing standard management model. The new structure, which came into
effect on 1 April 2016, saw Sellafield Ltd. become a subsidiary of the
NDA.
Decommissioning cost estimates
================================
NDA increasing estimates of 'remaining' cost of decommissioning and
clean-up
rowspan=2 | Year of estimate !! Sellafield* !! Other NDA sites !!
Total
colspan=3 | (£ billions, discounted)
|2006-07 21.9 11.7 33.6
|2007-08 24.8 15.9 40.7
|2009-10 25.2 19.9 45.1
|2010-11 32.7 16.5 49.2
|2011-12 37.2 15.6 52.9
|2012-13 42.0 16.9 58.9
|2013-14 47.9 17.0 64.9
|2014-15 53.2 12.5 65.7
|2015-16 117.4 43.3 160.7
|2018-19 97.0 21.3 118.3
|colspan=4 | * Sellafield includes Calder Hall and Windscale, and
Energy Trading
Sellafield accounts for most of the NDA's decommissioning budget and
the increases in future cost estimates. Its share (discounted,
including Calder Hall and Windscale; excluding Capenhurst) increased
from 21.9 billion (65%) in 2007 to 97.0 billion (82%) in 2019.
In 2013, the UK Government Public Accounts Committee issued a critical
report stating that NMP had failed to reduce costs and delays.
Between 2005 and 2013, the annual costs of operating Sellafield had
increased from £900million to about £1.6billion. The estimated
lifetime undiscounted cost of dealing with the Sellafield site
increased to £67.5billion. NMP management was forced to apologise
after projected clean-up costs passed the £70billion mark in late
2013. In 2014, the final undiscounted decommissioning cost projection
for Sellafield was increased to £79.1billion, and in 2015 to
£117.4billion. The annual operating cost was projected to be £2billion
in 2016. In 2018, it was revealed that the cost could be £121billion
by 2120.
The cost does not include the costs for future geological disposal
(GDF). These include research, design, construction, operation and
closure. The undiscounted lifetime costs for a GDF were estimated
£12.2 billion in 2008. The NDA's share of this is £10.1 billion, which
results in a discounted amount of about £3.4 billion.,p. 27
Windscale Piles
=================
Following the decision taken by the British government in January 1947
to develop nuclear weapons, Sellafield was chosen as the location of
the plutonium production plant, consisting of the Windscale Piles and
accompanying reprocessing plant to separate plutonium from the spent
nuclear fuel. Unlike the early US nuclear reactors at Hanford, which
consisted of a graphite core cooled by water, the Windscale Piles
consisted of a graphite core cooled by air. Each pile contained almost
2,000tonnes (1,968L/T) of graphite, and measured over 7.3 m high by
15.2 m in diameter. Fuel for the reactor consisted of rods of uranium
metal, approximately 30 cm long by 2.5 cm in diameter, and clad in
aluminium.
The initial fuel was loaded into the Windscale Piles in July 1950. By
July 1952 the separation plant was being used to separate plutonium
and uranium from spent fuel.
On 10 October 1957, the Windscale Piles were shut down following a
fire in Pile 1 during a scheduled graphite annealing procedure. The
fire badly damaged the pile core and released an estimated
750terabecquerels (20,000curies) of radioactive material, including
22TBq of Cs-137 and 740TBq of I-131 into the shafts. Thanks to
innovative filters installed by Nobel laureate Sir John Cockcroft 95%
of the material was captured. As a precautionary measure, milk from
surrounding farming areas was destroyed. However, no residents from
the surrounding area were evacuated or informed of the danger of the
radiation leakage. It is now believed that there have been 100 to 240
cancer deaths as a result of the release of radioactive material.
Following the fire, Pile 1 was unserviceable, and Pile 2, although
undamaged by the fire, was shut down as a precaution.
In the 1990s, the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority started to
implement plans to decommission, disassemble and clean up both piles.
In 2004, Pile 1 still contained about 15tonnes (14.76L/T) of uranium
fuel, and final completion of the decommissioning is not expected
until at least 2037.
In 2014, radioactive sludge in the Pile Fuel Storage Pond (PFSP),
built between 1948 and 1952, started to be repackaged in drums to
reduce the "sludge hazard" and to allow the pond to be decommissioned.
Decommissioning will require retrieval of sludge and solids, prior to
dewatering and deconstruction, with retrievals planned for completion
in 2016.
First Generation Reprocessing Plant
=====================================
The first generation reprocessing plant was built to extract the
plutonium from spent fuel to provide fissile material for the UK's
atomic weapons programme, and for exchange with the United States
through the US-UK Mutual Defence Agreement.
The Butex process was used (a forerunner to the more efficient Purex
process) and the plant operated from 1951 until 1964, with an annual
capacity of 300tonnes (295L/T) of pile spent fuel, or 750tonnes
(738L/T) of low burn-up fuel. It was first used to reprocess fuel from
the Windscale Piles but was later repurposed to process fuel from UK
Magnox reactors. Following the commissioning of the dedicated Magnox
Reprocessing Plant, it became a pre-handling plant to allow oxide fuel
to be reprocessed in the Magnox reprocessing plant. It was closed in
1973 after a violent reaction within the plant contaminated the entire
plant and 34 workers with ruthenium-106.
Magnox Reprocessing Plant
===========================
In 1964, the Magnox reprocessing plant came on stream to reprocess
spent nuclear fuel from the national Magnox reactor fleet. The plant
used the "plutonium uranium extraction" (Purex) method for
reprocessing spent fuel, with tributyl phosphate in odourless kerosene
and nitric acid as extraction agents. The Purex process produces
uranium, plutonium and fission products as separated chemical output
streams.
Magnox fuel has to be reprocessed in a timely fashion since the
cladding corrodes if stored underwater, and routes for dry storage
have not yet been proven, so it has been necessary to keep the plant
running to process all the Magnox fuel inventory.
Magnox fuel reprocessing ceased on 17 July 2022, when the reprocessing
plant completed its last batch of fuel after 58years of operation. A
total of 55,000tonnes of fuel had been processed during those years.
The First Generation Magnox Storage Pond (FGMSP)
==================================================
This was built to support reprocessing of fuel from UK Magnox power
stations through the Magnox Reprocessing Plant. It was initially
planned to be used to keep fuel rods in for three months before they
were reprocessed, but was used for operations between 1959 until 1985.
The pond is 20 m wide, 150 m long and 6 m deep. Originally called B30
(and nicknamed 'Dirty 30'), the pond was renamed in 2018.
As of 2014, the FGMSP remains as a priority decommissioning project.
As well as nuclear waste, the pond holds about 1200 m3 of radioactive
sludge of unknown characteristics and 14000 m3 of contaminated water.
Decommissioning requires retrieval of the radioactive sludge into a
newly built Sludge Packaging Plant, as well as fuel and skip
retrieval. Completion of this will allow the dewatering and
dismantling of the remaining structure.
Future work will immobilise the sludge for long-term storage, and
process solids through the Fuel Handling Plant for treatment and
storage.
Magnox Swarf Storage Silo (MSSS)
==================================
The Magnox Swarf Storage Silo is a large building on the Sellafield
Site which contains intermediate level fuel cladding swarf waste
arising from reprocessing Magnox reactor fuel. Once expended fuel was
removed from the Magnox reactors, the magnesium cladding was removed
prior to the chemical processing of the fuel rod. To accomplish this,
the fuel can was fed through a machine known as a "decanner" which
stripped the cladding off the inner rod creating the swarf of broken
magnesium alloy cladding as a waste product.
Since the start of commercial Magnox reprocessing in 1964 (the same
year MSSS began operations), this waste was deposited into individual
water-filled compartments within the MSSS. As they became full, more
were added between the 1960s and 1983 totalling 22 compartments. In
the early 1990s, the wet storage of this waste was no longer seen as
the most effective way to store the material, and in later years was
replaced with a dry storage method. The long-term storage and
subsequent degradation of the magnesium alloy swarf in water causes an
exothermic reaction which releases hydrogen gas. Normal operating
procedures and overall design of the silo allowed for hydrogen gas to
be safely vented before it could accumulate, and the heat can be
removed through re-circulation of the water. The Magnox Swarf Storage
Silo ceased being filled in 2000.
Many of the historic Sellafield operating practices have been
superseded by better and safer alternatives. Consequently, since 2000
the Magnox Encapsulation Plant on site has been responsible for the
safe processing and dry storage of Magnox cladding swarf. This still
left the problem of removing waste material that has been stored in
hazardous conditions in the MSSS. To accomplish this complex task,
Sellafield Ltd has partnered with commercial firms to design,
construct and operate a remotely operated waste retrieval facility
called the Silo Emptying Plant (SEP). This is designed to retrieve
waste from the MSSS which will be processed in other specially
designed site facilities, and then placed in interim storage at
Sellafield. Longer term it is hoped such waste would be consigned to a
deep geological repository for permanent storage. The radioactive
inventory and lack of modern standards in the silo has made it the
most complicated and highest-priority mission in the NDA estate
nationally.
Preparations for removing the 11,000m3 of historic waste from the
silos and storing safely have taken over 20years.
On 10 June 2022, Sellafield Ltd announced the commencement of waste
retrievals which will take approximately 20years. Once this
radiological hazard has been removed, the MSSS structure can be
demolished.
Calder Hall nuclear power station
===================================
Calder Hall was first connected to the grid on 27 August 1956 and
officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 17 October 1956. It was the
world's first nuclear power station to provide electricity on a
commercial scale to a public grid.
The Calder Hall design was codenamed PIPPA (Pressurised Pile Producing
Power and Plutonium) by the UKAEA to denote the plant's dual
commercial and military role. Construction started in 1953. Calder
Hall had four Magnox reactors capable of generating 60MWe (net) of
power each, reduced to 50MWe in 1973. The reactors also supplied steam
to the whole site for process and other purposes. The reactors were
supplied by UKAEA, the turbines by C. A. Parsons and Company, and the
civil engineering contractor was Taylor Woodrow Construction.
In its early life Calder Hall primarily produced weapons-grade
plutonium, with two fuel loads per year; electricity production was a
secondary purpose. From 1964 it was mainly used on commercial fuel
cycles; in April 1995 the UK Government announced that all production
of plutonium for weapons purposes had ceased.
The station was closed on 31 March 2003, the first reactor having been
in use for nearly 47years. decommissioning started in 2005. The plant
should be in save storage, called "care and maintenance" (C&M), by
2027 or later.
Calder Hall had four cooling towers, each 88 m in height, which were
highly-visible landmarks. Plans for a museum involving renovating
Calder Hall and preserving the towers were formulated, but the costs
were too high.Feasibility Study with many pictures of Calder Hall:
[
https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ukgwa/20150817115932/http://www.nda.gov.uk/documents/upload/NDA-Calder-Hall-Nuclear-Power-Station-Feasibility-Study-2007.pdf
'Calder Hall Nuclear Power Station Feasibility Study.'] NDA/ATKINS,
March 2007 The cooling towers were demolished by controlled implosions
on 29 September 2007. A period of 12 weeks was required to remove
asbestos in the towers' rubble.
Windscale Advanced Gas Cooled Reactor (WAGR)
==============================================
The WAGR was a prototype for the UK's second generation of reactors,
the advanced gas-cooled reactor or AGR, which followed on from the
Magnox stations. The station had a rated thermal output of
approximately 100MW and 30MWe. The WAGR spherical containment, known
colloquially as the "golfball", is one of the iconic buildings on the
site. Construction was carried out by Mitchell Construction and
completed in 1962. This reactor was shut down in 1981, and is now part
of a pilot project to demonstrate techniques for safely
decommissioning a nuclear reactor.
Thermal Oxide Reprocessing Plant (THORP)
==========================================
Between 1977 and 1978 an inquiry, chaired by Mr Justice Parker, was
held into an application by BNFL for outline planning permission to
build a new plant to reprocess irradiated oxide nuclear fuel from both
UK and foreign reactors. The inquiry was used to answer three
questions:
'"1. Should oxide fuel from United Kingdom reactors be reprocessed in
this country at all; whether at Windscale or elsewhere? 2. If yes,
should such reprocessing be carried on at Windscale? 3. If yes, should
the reprocessing plant be about double the estimated site required to
handle United Kingdom oxide fuels and be used as to the spare
capacity, for reprocessing foreign fuels?"' The result of the inquiry
was that the new plant, the Thermal Oxide Reprocessing Plant (THORP)
was given the go ahead in 1978, although it did not go into operation
until 1994.
In 2003, it was announced that THORP would be closed in 2010, but this
was later extended to 2018 to allow completion of agreed contracts.
Originally predicted to make profits for BNFL of £500million, by 2003
it had made losses of over £1billion. THORP was closed for almost
twoyears from 2005, after a leak had been undetected for nine months.
Production eventually restarted at the plant in early 2008, but almost
immediately had to be put on hold again, as an underwater lift that
takes the fuel for reprocessing needed to be repaired.
On 14 November 2018 it was announced that operations had ended at
THORP. The facility will be used to store spent nuclear fuel until the
2070s.
Highly Active Liquor Evaporation and Storage
==============================================
Highly Active Liquor Evaporation and Storage (HALES) is a department
at Sellafield. It conditions nuclear waste streams from the Magnox and
Thorp reprocessing plants, prior to transfer to the Waste
Vitrification Plant.
Waste Vitrification Plant
===========================
In 1990 the Waste Vitrification Plant (WVP), which seals high-level
radioactive waste in glass, was opened. In this plant, liquid wastes
are mixed with glass and melted in a furnace, which when cooled forms
a solid block of glass.
The plant has three process lines and is based on the French AVM
procedure. The plant was built with two lines, commissioned during
1989, with a third added in 2002. The principal item is an inductively
heated melting furnace, in which the calcined waste is mixed with
glass frit (fragments of smashed glass) The melt is poured into waste
containers which are welded shut, allowed to cool slowly in a heater
to facilitate a monolithic product (single large block of glass with
minimal cracks or small crystals to facilitate long term stability),
their outsides decontaminated in WVP, then again in the connected
building Residue Export Facility (REF), and then placed in the
air-cooled Vitrified Product Store.
This storage consists of 800 vertical storage tubes each capable of
storing ten containers. The total storage capacity is 8000 containers,
and 6000 containers had been stored by 2016.
Vitrification should ensure safe storage of waste in the UK for the
medium- to long-term, with the objective of eventual placement in a
deep geological repository. As of 2007 studies of durability and leach
rates were being carried out.
Sellafield MOX Plant
======================
Construction of the Sellafield MOX fuel Plant (SMP) was completed in
1997, and operations began in October 2001. Although designed with a
production capacity of 120tonnes/year, the plant achieved a total
output of only 5tonnes during its first fiveyears of operation.
Consequently, in 2008 orders for the plant had to be fulfilled at
COGEMA in France, and the plant was reported in the media as "failed"
with a total construction and operating cost by 2009 of £1.2billion.
On 12 May 2010, an agreement was reached with existing Japanese
customers on future MOX supplies.
In July 2010 Areva was contracted to design and supply a new rod line
to improve reliability and production rate. However, on 3 August 2011
the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority announced that the MOX Plant
would close, due to the loss of the Japanese orders following the
Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. The NDA stated that the plant "had
suffered many years of disappointing performance", and it was reported
that the total cost to date had been £1.4billion. Although Japanese
orders for MOX fuel re-commenced on 17 April 2013, they were supplied
from France by COGEMA.
Enhanced Actinide Removal Plant (EARP)
========================================
Since its early days, Sellafield has discharged low-level radioactive
waste into the sea, using a flocculation process to remove
radioactivity from liquid effluent before discharge. Metals dissolved
in acidic effluents were made to produce a metal hydroxide flocculant
precipitate following the addition of ammonium hydroxide. The
suspension was then transferred to settling tanks where the
precipitate would settle out, and the remaining clarified liquid, or
supernate, would be discharged to the Irish Sea. As an improvement to
that process, in 1994 the Enhanced Actinide Removal Plant (EARP)
became operational. In EARP the effectiveness of the process is
enhanced by the addition of reagents to remove the remaining soluble
radioactive species. EARP was enhanced further in 2004 to further
reduce the quantities of technetium-99 released to the environment.
Radioactive waste stores
==========================
Sellafield has several radioactive waste stores, mostly working on an
interim basis while a deep geological repository plan is developed and
implemented.
The stores include:
* Legacy Ponds and Silos - Storage of historic waste
* Sludge packaging plant - Treatment and interim storage of sludges
from legacy ponds
* Sellafield product and residue store - Site store for plutonium and
plutonium residues - The civil plutonium stockpile stood at 140tonnes
at the ending of reprocessing in 2022.
* Engineered drum stores - Site stores for plutonium-contaminated
material
* Encapsulated product stores - Site stores for grouted wastes
* Vitrified product store - Vitrified high level waste
The UK's main Low Level Waste Repository for nuclear waste is 6 km
south east of Sellafield at Drigg. A paper published in 1989 said that
70% of the waste received at Drigg originated from Sellafield.
Fellside Power Station
========================
Fellside Power Station is a 168MWe CHP gas-fired power station
adjacent to the Sellafield site, which it supplies with process and
heating steam. It is run as Fellside Heat and Power Ltd, is wholly
owned by Sellafield Ltd and is operated & managed by PX Ltd. It
was built in 1993, in anticipation of the closure of the Calder Hall
generating station, which supplied these services.
The station uses three General Electric Frame 6001B gas turbines, with
power entering the National Grid via a 132kV transformer. The turbines
at Fellside are normally natural gas fired but are also able to run on
distillate (diesel) fuel.
In May 2023, Sellafield Ltd removed a set of large, now redundant
steel tanks at the Fellside power station. Their original purpose has
been fulfilled by newer tanks.
National Nuclear Laboratory headquarters
==========================================
The Central Laboratory at Sellafield is the headquarters of the
National Nuclear Laboratory (NNL). It supports newly built reactors,
operation of reactors, operations of fuel processing plants and
decommissioning and clean-up. The NNL's Central Laboratory can
undertake a wide range of radioactive and non-radioactive experimental
programmes.
It undertakes a wide range of analytical services, with customers
ranging from Government and the NDA to site licence companies,
utilities, nuclear specialists and universities. Smaller experiments
are undertaken at Sellafield and larger experiments and rigs are
assembled off site, in non-radioactive areas prior to active testing
in a radioactive setting.
Employment
============
Sellafield directly employs around 10,000 people and is one of the two
largest non-governmental employers in West Cumbria (along with BAE
Systems at Barrow-in-Furness), with approximately 90% of the employees
coming from West Cumbria.
Because of the increase in local unemployment following any run down
of Sellafield operations, the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (and
HMG) is concerned that this needs to be managed.
West Cumbria Sites Stakeholder Group (WCSSG)
==============================================
The WCSSG is an independent body whose role is to provide public
scrutiny of the nuclear industry in West Cumbria.
The WCSSG replaced the Sellafield Local Liaison Committee (SLLC) to
cover all the nuclear licensed sites in the area, not just Sellafield
Site, and this change is intended to emphasise the importance of
engagement with the community; encouraging input in discussions and
consultations from all stakeholders. With the change of organisation
and ownership of licensed sites, the WCSSG has consequently changed
and re-organised its sub-committees, but the objective remains the
same. The meetings of the main group and its sub-committees are held
in West Cumbria and are open to the public.
Sellafield Visitor Centre
===========================
The £5 million centre was opened by Prince Philip on 6 June 1988, and
at its peak it attracted an average of 1,000 people per day. However,
despite a large refurbishment in 1995, and the transfer of creative
control to the Science Museum in 2002, its popularity deteriorated,
prompting the change from a tourist attraction to a conference
facility in 2008. This facility completely closed in 2015, was briefly
used by the Civil Nuclear Constabulary as a training facility, and as
of 2019 the building has been demolished. The story of Sellafield is
now being told through a permanent exhibition at the Beacon Museum in
Whitehaven.
Radiological releases
=======================
Between 1950 and 2000, there were 21 serious incidents or accidents
involving off-site radiological releases that warranted a rating on
the International Nuclear Event Scale, one at level 5, five at level 4
and fifteen at level 3. During the 1950s and 1960s there were
protracted periods of known, deliberate discharges to the atmosphere
of plutonium and irradiated uranium oxide particulates.
In the effort to build the independent British nuclear weapon in the
1940s and 1950s, diluted radioactive waste was discharged by pipeline
into the Irish Sea. Greenpeace claims that the Irish Sea remains one
of the most heavily contaminated seas in the world because of these
discharges. Ocean scientist David Assinger has challenged this general
suggestion, and cites the Dead Sea as the most radioactive sea in the
world. The Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of
the North-East Atlantic (OSPAR Convention) reports an estimated 200 kg
of plutonium has been deposited in the marine sediments of the Irish
Sea.
Most of the area's long-lived radioactive technetium came from the
reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel at the Sellafield facility.
Technetium-99 is a radioactive element which is produced by nuclear
fuel reprocessing, and also as a by-product of medical facilities (for
example Ireland is responsible for the discharge of approximately
11grams or 6.78gigabecquerels of technetium-99 each year despite not
having a nuclear industry).
Because it is almost uniquely produced by nuclear fuel reprocessing,
technetium-99 is an important element as part of the OSPAR Convention
since it provides a good tracer for discharges into the sea. In
itself, the technetium discharges do not represent a significant
radiological hazard, and in 2000, a study noted "...that in the most
recently reported dose estimates for the most exposed Sellafield group
of seafood consumers (FSA/SEPA 2000), the contributions from
technetium-99 and actinide nuclides from Sellafield (<100μSv) was
less than that from 210Po attributable to discharges from the
Whitehaven phosphate fertiliser plant and probably less than the dose
from naturally occurring background levels of 210Po."
Because of the need to comply with the OSPAR Convention, British
Nuclear Group commissioned a new process in which technetium-99 was
removed from the waste stream and vitrified in glass blocks in the new
Vitrification Plant on site.
Discharges into the sea of radioactive effluents - mainly caesium-137
- from Sellafield amounted to 5200TBq during the peak year, 1975.
In 1983 radioactive discharges to sea containing ruthenium and
rhodium-106, both beta-emitting isotopes, resulted in temporary
warnings against swimming in the sea along a 10 mi stretch of coast
between St. Bees and Eskmeals.
BNFL received a fine of £10,000 for this discharge. 1983 was also the
year in which Yorkshire Television produced a documentary "Windscale:
The Nuclear Laundry", which claimed that the low levels of
radioactivity that are associated with waste streams from nuclear
plants such as Sellafield did pose a non-negligible risk.
Windscale fire
================
The Windscale fire of October 1957 stands as the most severe incident
in the history of the Sellafield site. This event, rated at level 5
out of 7 on the International Nuclear Event Scale, ranks among the
world's most significant nuclear accidents, with only three events
having received higher ratings. The incident involved a fire in the
Windscale Piles, facilities used for plutonium production, which
resulted in a substantial release of radioactive fallout into the
environment.
The consequences of this event were far-reaching. Surrounding
agricultural areas, particularly dairy farms, experienced radioactive
contamination. Of notable concern was the release of significant
quantities of the iodine-131 isotope, a known contributor to thyroid
cancer risk. The scale and impact of this incident have made it a
subject of ongoing study and discussion in the field of nuclear
safety.
The UK government downplayed the events for some time and the original
reports on the fire were subject to heavy censorship, as Prime
Minister Harold Macmillan feared the incident would harm
British-American nuclear relations. It has since come to light that
small but significant amounts of the highly dangerous radioactive
isotope polonium-210 were also released, though knowledge of this was
excluded from government reports until 1983.
The Windscale fire remains Britain's worst nuclear accident, and the
worst nuclear accident in the West. The release would have been much
worse if it had not been for the filter at the top of the Pile's
exhaust chimney.
A 1988 UK government estimate stated that 100 people "probably" died
as a result of exposure to the radioactive fallout from the Windscale
fire. In 2007, the 50th anniversary of the fire, new academic research
concluded that the amount of radioactive fallout released was twice
the existing estimates and it spread further east than thought. The
study concluded that 240 people were given cancer in the surrounding
areas, and that 100 to 240 of these cancer cases were fatal.
Plutonium Recovery Plant criticality
======================================
On 24 August 1970, a criticality incident occurred in the Plutonium
Recovery Plant.
The plant recovered plutonium from miscellaneous sources and was
considered tightly controlled. Plutonium was dissolved and transferred
into a solvent extraction column through a transfer vessel and
backflow trap. Unexpectedly, 2.15 kg of plutonium had accumulated in
the transfer vessel and backflow trap and become just sub-critical. As
an organic solvent was added to the aqueous solution in the vessel,
the organic and aqueous phases separated out with the organic layer on
top. This solvent extracted plutonium from the aqueous solution with
sufficient concentration and geometry to create a criticality.
Two plant workers were exposed to radiation.
First Generation Magnox Storage Pond Deterioration
====================================================
Due to algae forming in the pond and a buildup of radioactive sludge,
it was impossible to determine exactly how much radioactive waste was
stored in the FGMSP. British authorities had not been able to provide
the Euratom inspectors with precise data and the European Commission
took action against Great Britain in the European Court of Justice in
2004. According to Greenpeace there was an expected 1300kg of
plutonium, 400kg of which was in mud sediments.
Radiation around the pool could get so high that a person was not
allowed to stay more than 2 minutes, seriously affecting
decommissioning. The pool was not watertight; time and weather had
created cracks in the concrete, letting contaminated water leak. In
2014 photographs of the storage ponds were leaked to the media,
showing they were in poor condition with cracked concrete, vegetation
growing amongst machinery and seagulls bathing in the pools.
MOX fuel quality data falsification
=====================================
The MOX Demonstration Facility was a small-scale plant to produce
commercial quality MOX fuel for light water reactors. The plant was
commissioned between 1992 and 1994, and until 1999 produced fuel for
use in Switzerland, Germany and Japan.
In 1999 it was discovered that the plant's staff had been falsifying
quality assurance data since 1996. A Nuclear Installations
Inspectorate (NII) investigation concluded four of the five
work-shifts were involved in the falsification, though only one worker
admitted to falsifying data, and that "the level of control and
supervision ... had been virtually non-existent.". The NII stated that
the safety performance of the fuel was not affected as there was also
a primary automated check on the fuel. Nevertheless, "in a plant with
the proper safety culture, the events described in this report could
not have happened" and there were systematic failures in management.
BNFL had to pay compensation to the Japanese customer, Kansai
Electric, and take back a flawed shipment of MOX fuel from Japan.
BNFL's Chief Executive John Taylor resigned, after initially resisting
resignation when the NII's damning report was published.
Plutonium records discrepancy
===============================
On 17 February 2005, the UK Atomic Energy Authority reported that 29.6
kg of plutonium was unaccounted for in auditing records at the
Sellafield nuclear fuel reprocessing plant. The operating company, the
British Nuclear Group, described this as a discrepancy in paper
records and not as indicating any physical loss of material. They
pointed out that the error amounted to about 0.5%, whereas
International Atomic Energy Agency regulations permit a discrepancy up
to 1% as the amount of plutonium recovered from the reprocessing
process never precisely matches the pre-process estimates.
The inventories in question were accepted as satisfactory by Euratom,
the relevant regulatory agency.
Waste Vitrification Plant sabotage
====================================
In 2000, wires on six robotic arms that moved vitrified glass blocks
were deliberately cut by staff, putting the vitrification plant out of
operation for three days.
2005 THORP plant leak
=======================
On 19 April 2005, around 83000 L of hot nitric acid containing
dissolved radioisotopes was discovered to have leaked in the THORP
reprocessing plant from a cracked pipe into a huge stainless
steel-lined concrete sump chamber built to contain leaks.
A discrepancy between the amount of material entering and exiting the
THORP processing system had first been noted in August 2004.
Operations staff did not discover the leak until safeguards staff
reported the discrepancies. Nineteentonnes of uranium and 160 kg of
plutonium dissolved in nitric acid has been pumped from the sump
vessel into a holding tank.
No radiation was released to the environment, and no one was injured
by the incident, but because of the large escape of radioactivity to
the secondary containment the incident was given an International
Nuclear Event Scale level 3 categorisation. Sellafield Limited was
fined £500,000 for breaching health and safety law. In January 2007,
Sellafield was given consent to restart THORP.
Organ removal inquiry
=======================
In 2007, an inquiry was launched into the removal of tissue from a
total of 65 dead nuclear workers, some of whom worked at Sellafield.
It has been alleged that the tissue was removed without seeking
permission from the relatives of the late workers. Michael Redfern QC
was appointed to lead the investigation. At the same time 'The
Observer' revealed that official documents showed that during the
1960s volunteer workers at Sellafield had participated in secret Cold
War experiments to assess the biological effect of exposure to
radioactive substances, such as from ingesting caesium-134.
The inquiry final report was published in November 2010, reporting
that "...body parts had been removed between 1961 and 1992. The deaths
of 76 workers - 64 from Sellafield and 12 from other UK nuclear plants
- were examined, although the scope of the inquiry was later
significantly widened." The person behind this scheme was Dr Geoffrey
Schofield, who became BNFL's Company chief medical officer, and who
died in 1985. Sellafield staff did not breach any legal obligation,
did not consider their actions untoward, and published the scientific
information obtained in peer-reviewed scientific journals. It was the
hospital pathologists, who were profoundly ignorant of the law, who
breached the Human Tissue Act 1961 by giving Sellafield human organs,
without any consents, under an informal arrangement.
2023 hacking and radioactive leak
===================================
In December 2023, it emerged that Sellafield was the victim of cyber
hacking by groups closely linked to Russia and China It was first
reported by UK newspaper 'The Guardian', it is unknown if the malware
has yet been eradicated. It is still unknown to the extent of the
attack and what the long term effects are.
'The Guardian' has since reported that the Sellafield site has a
"worsening leak from a huge silo of radioactive waste" that is likely
to continue until 2050. The silo in question is the Magnox swarf
storage silo and it was reported that scientists were still trying to
estimate the risk to the public using statistical modelling.
Health studies in Cumbria and Seascale
======================================================================
In 1983, the Medical Officer of West Cumbria, is said by Paul Foot to
have announced that cancer fatality rates were lower around the
nuclear plant than elsewhere in Great Britain. In the early 1990s,
concern was raised in the UK about apparent clusters of leukaemia near
nuclear facilities.
A 1997 Ministry of Health report stated that children living close to
Sellafield had twice as much plutonium in their teeth as children
living more than 100 mi away. Health Minister Melanie Johnson said the
quantities were minute and "presented no risk to public health". This
claim, according to a book written by Stephanie Cooke, was challenged
by Professor Eric Wright, an expert on blood disorders at the
University of Dundee, who said that even microscopic amounts of
plutonium might cause cancer.
Studies carried out by the Committee on Medical Aspects of Radiation
in the Environment (COMARE) in 2003 reported no evidence of raised
childhood cancer in general around nuclear power plants, but did
report an excess of leukaemia (cancer of the blood or bone) and
non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL, a blood cancer) near two other nuclear
installations including Sellafield, the Atomic Weapons Establishment
Burghfield and UKAEA Dounreay.
COMARE's conclusion was that "the excesses around Sellafield and
Dounreay are unlikely to be due to chance, although there is not at
present a convincing explanation for them". In earlier reports COMARE
had suggested that "a mechanism involving infection may be a
significant factor." The clusters have disappeared in the early 1990s.
In a study published in the 'British Journal of Cancer', which also
did not find an increase in any other cancers other than Leukemia, the
authors of which attempted to quantify the effect population mixing
might have on the Seascale leukaemia cluster. In the analysis of
childhood leukaemia/NHL in Cumbria, excluding Seascale, they noted
that if both parents were born outside the Cumbrian area (incomers),
there was a significantly higher rate of leukaemia/NHL in their
children. 1181 children were born in the village of Seascale between
1950 and 1989, in children aged 1-14 during this period, the Seascale
cluster of 6 observed cases of NHL were noted. Two similarly aged
children, born between 1950 and 1989, outside Seascale were also
diagnosed with ALL/NHL before the end of 1992. The origin of birth of
11 of the 16 parents of these eight children was known, and found to
be; 3 had parents born outside Cumbria and 3 had one parent born
outside the UK. The study's authors strongly supported the hypothesis
that the risk of ALL/NHL, in particular in the younger age group,
increases with increased exposure to population mixing during
gestation or early in life. Although they determined that the exact
mechanism by which it causes these malignancies, apart from Kinlen's
infection aetiology that was mentioned, remained unknown, concluding
that the possibility of additional risk factors in Seascale remains.
In an examination of all causes of stillbirth and infant mortality in
Cumbria taken as a whole, between 1950 and 1993, 4,325 stillbirths,
3,430 neonatal death and 1,569 lethal congenital anomalies, occurred
among 287,993 births. Overall, results did not infer an increased risk
of still birth or neonatal death in Cumbria, the rate of these
negative outcomes were largely in line with the British baseline rate.
However, there was a cautioned connection between a small excess of
increased risk of death from lethal congenital anomalies and proximity
to municipal waste incinerators and chemical waste crematoriums being
noted. With two examples of the latter crematoriums operating in both
Barrow-in-Furness and further afield at Carlisle, crematoriums which
may have emitted various chemical dioxins during their operation.
Republic of Ireland
=====================
Potassium iodate tablets were distributed to every household in
Ireland in the wake of 9/11 in case of a terror attack on reprocessing
plants and nuclear power stations in Britain. Upon later expert Irish
examination in 2007, this was found not to have been justified. The
Irish Department of Health advised in 2021 that the tablets could be
disposed of with municipal waste.
Sellafield has been a matter of consternation in Ireland, with the
Irish Government and some of the population concerned at the risk that
such a facility may pose to the country. The Irish government has made
formal complaints about the facility, and in 2006 came to an agreement
with the British Government about the matter, as part of which the
Radiological Protection Institute of Ireland and the Garda Síochána
(the Irish police force) are now allowed access to the site.
Isle of Man
=============
The Government of the Isle of Man has also registered protests due to
the risk posed by radioactive contamination. The Manx government has
called for the site to be shut down.
The Irish and Manx governments have collaborated on this issue, and
brought it to the attention of the British-Irish Council.
Norway
========
Similar objections to those held by the Irish government have been
voiced by the Norwegian government since 1997. Monitoring undertaken
by the Norwegian Radiation Protection Authority has shown that the
prevailing sea currents transport radioactive materials leaked into
the sea at Sellafield along the entire coast of Norway and water
samples have shown up to tenfold increases in such materials as
technetium-99. The Norwegian government is also seeking closure of the
facility.
Proposal to establish adjacent power station
======================================================================
In February 2009, NuGeneration (NuGen), a consortium of GDF Suez,
Iberdrola and Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE), announced plans to
build a new nuclear power station of up to 3.6GW capacity adjacent to
Sellafield. In October 2009, NuGen purchased an option to acquire land
around Sellafield from the NDA for £70million.
In October 2010, the UK government announced that Sellafield was one
of the eight possible sites it considered suitable for future nuclear
power stations. In June 2011, the government confirmed the suitability
of the site, and hoped an electricity generating company would choose
to build a power station near Sellafield at Moorside by 2025. In 2018,
this project was terminated when Toshiba decided to close Nugen and
withdraw from nuclear power plant construction in the UK.
In June 2020, the UK government along with EDF together with
Rolls-Royce announced that Sellafield has been chosen as a site which
will house various types of clean nuclear technologies such as EDF's
leading EPR reactor together with Rolls-Royce SMR reactors. The site
would serve to produce both electricity and clean hydrogen. EDF has
stated plans to construct a twin-EPR station similar in design to
Hinkley Point C and Sizewell C. The site will house some of the 16
planned 440Mwe SMRs to be deployed across the UK.
Sellafield in popular culture
======================================================================
Kraftwerk mentions Sellafield in the intro of the 1991 version of the
song "Radioactivity" together with Chernobyl, Harrisburg and
Hiroshima. On their 2005 live album Kraftwerk preface a live
performance of "Radioactivity" with a vocoder voice announcing:
"Sellafield 2 will produce 7.5tons of plutonium every year.
1.5kilogram of plutonium make a nuclear bomb. Sellafield 2 will
release the same amount of radioactivity into the environment as
Chernobyl every 4.5years. One of these radioactive substances, krypton
85, will cause death and skin cancer."
The Windscale fire of 1957 at the Sellafield site was the subject of a
1983 documentary by Yorkshire Television, entitled 'Windscale - the
Nuclear Laundry'. It alleged that the clusters of leukaemia in
children around Windscale were attributable to the radioactive fallout
from the fire.
The Windscale fire has also been the subject of three BBC
documentaries. The first, shown originally in 1990, was entitled 'Our
Reactor is on Fire', and was part of the 'Inside Story' series. A
30-minute drama-documentary about the incident was then released in
1999 as part of the BBC's 'Disaster' series; the episode was entitled
'Atomic Inferno - The Windscale Fire' and was later released on DVD.
During the 50-year anniversary of the incident in 2007, another
documentary was released by the BBC entitled 'Windscale: Britain's
Biggest Nuclear Disaster'. All three of these documentaries include
interviews with key plant workers and Tom Tuohy, the deputy general
manager of Windscale at the time of the accident and the man who
risked his life to extinguish the flames.
In the 1985 BBC radio series 'Nineteen Ninety-Four', a comedic parody
of George Orwell's 'Nineteen Eighty-Four', civil servant Edward Wilson
discovers that Cumbria, which the governing Department of the
Environment had claimed had witnessed widespread devastation via an
unspecified natural or manmade disaster in 1990, had been converted
into Sellingfield, a secret socially engineered community built on
consumerism, advertising and market research.
'Fallout', a 2006 drama shown on the Irish national TV station RTÉ,
based on the false premise that parts of Ireland would need to be
evacuated following a serious accident at Sellafield, showed that
following the accident there are evacuation riots, societal collapse
and widespread health impacts.
Dr Ann McGarry, chief executive of the Radiological Protection
Institute of Ireland, said: "The scenario envisaged in the programme
is not realistic and grossly exaggerates the amount of radioactivity
that could reach Ireland. The RPII cannot envisage any realistic
scenario that would cause the radiation levels in Ireland to reach the
concentrations as what was depicted in the drama".
The Radiological Protection Institute of Ireland (RPII) said that
"the scenario as depicted in tonight's RTÉ drama, Fallout, could not
happen. The RPII, who viewed the drama...has analysed the scenario as
depicted and has concluded that it is not possible for such an
accident to occur in Sellafield."
A 2015 BBC Four documentary, 'Britain's Nuclear Secrets: Inside
Sellafield', examined the various radiation leaks and incidents that
have occurred at Sellafield over the years and the health risks that
have arisen as a result.
In 2016, Sellafield featured in an episode of the BBC series Panorama
(TV series). The 30-minute documentary documented the many dangerous
accidents and incidents that have occurred at the site over the years,
and featured interviews with a mysterious whistleblower.
The 2025 videogame Atomfall is set in an alternate history 1960s where
the Windscale nuclear disasters turned much of the Lake District into
a radioactive quarantine zone.
Notable employees
======================================================================
* Derrick Bird, gunman from the Cumbria Shootings in 2010. Bird worked
at Sellafield until 1990 when he was sacked for an alleged theft of a
plank of wood.
See also
======================================================================
*Energy policy of the United Kingdom
*Energy use and conservation in the United Kingdom
*List of nuclear accidents
*List of nuclear reactors
*Nuclear power in the United Kingdom
*Dorothy Gradden
Further reading
======================================================================
#'[
https://web.archive.org/web/20070211105952/http://www.bellona.org/reports/sellafield
Sellafield]', Erik Martiniussen, Bellona Foundation, December 2003,
#'[
https://web.archive.org/web/20060724180943/http://www.radiochem.org/paper/JN41/j041Tagami.pdf
Technetium-99 Behaviour in the Terrestrial Environment - Field
Observations and Radiotracer Experiments]', Keiko Tagami, 'Journal of
Nuclear and Radiochemical Sciences', Vol. 4, No.1, pp. A1-A8, 2003
#'The excess of childhood leukaemia near Sellafield: a commentary on
the fourth COMARE report', L J Kinlen et al. 1997 J. Radiol. Prot. 17
63-71
1957 fire
===========
*[
https://vimeo.com/218766324 John Dunster Memorial Lecture at SRP
annual conference 2017, by Prof R Wakeford. Includes radiological
aspects of Windscale Fire]
*[
http://www.lakestay.co.uk/1957.htm An article on the Windscale fire,
by the Lake District Tourist Board]
*[
http://www.nucleartourist.com/events/windscal.htm Nuclear Tourist]
*[
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/8/newsid_3181000/3181342.stm
BBC retrospective on the accident report]
2005 leak
===========
*[
https://web.archive.org/web/20070312035923/http://www.neimagazine.com/story.asp?sectionCode=132&storyCode=2029958
Board of Inquiry Report]
Other
=======
*[
https://books.google.com/books?id=1t4DAAAAMBAJ&dq=1954+Popular+Mechanics+January&pg=PA74
"Britain's Pioneer Atomic Power Plants."] 'Popular Mechanics', June
1954, pp.74-75, cutaway drawing of facilities.
*[
http://econtent.unm.edu/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/nuceng&CISOPTR=9&CISOBOX=1&REC=13
Calder Hall], Nuclear Engineering International wall chart, October
1956
*[
http://www.sellafieldstories.org.uk/ Sellafield Stories at Cumbria
County Council oral history project]
License
=========
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Original Article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sellafield
