The forgotten nuclear incident.....
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wrote 6 days ago last edited by
Fukushima. Three Mile Island. Chernobyl. Places that will forever be remembered as the sites of nuclear disasters.
Most people will have heard of them. But fewer are aware of the Windscale fire.
It was one of the world's first - and remains the UK's worst - nuclear accident.
A nuclear reactor at the site in Cumbria caught fire and burned for three days, releasing radioactive material into the atmosphere.
Many details of the event were kept quiet for decades, and it is far less famous than some of the more recent examples.
Even less well known is the fact that my dad's boss was in charge of the experiment that caused the fire - no kidding!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windscale_fire
And now it's a computer game - https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5y4n5127dxo
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wrote 6 days ago last edited by
Don't know about you, I rarely associate the U.K. with nuclear power or nuclear weapons, even though I know that the U.K. is a nuclear power.
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Don't know about you, I rarely associate the U.K. with nuclear power or nuclear weapons, even though I know that the U.K. is a nuclear power.
wrote 6 days ago last edited by Doctor Phibes@Axtremus said in The forgotten nuclear incident.....:
Don't know about you, I rarely associate the U.K. with nuclear power or nuclear weapons, even though I know that the U.K. is a nuclear power.
There was plenty of nuclear activity when I was growing up. Both the UK Atomic Energy Authority and British Nuclear Fuels were major employers in the area. They reduced activity in the mid-90's, so only about 15% of the power is nuclear nowadays.
Also, CND is a British organization. You might not have heard of them (really?), but I bet you know their symbol...
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wrote 5 days ago last edited by
Just read through this...interesting, I didn't know about it. It was a level 5 out of 7 disaster, which is the same level as Three Mile Island. Looks like turning the fans on to cool off things helped spread the fire (had they known about the fire...)