District Surveys following the Windscale Incident, October 1957

Abstract

During 10-11 October 1957 a fire in the core of a nuclear reactor at Windscale Works, Sellafield (in the current county of Cumbria, England) led to a significant release of radioactive material to atmosphere. The accident at Windscale No. 1 Pile required a large-scale environmental monitoring programme to be conducted and the results of this survey led to a restriction on the distribution of milk from an area adjacent to Windscale Works for a period of several weeks. This monitoring programme was described in detail by H J Dunster and his colleagues from the Industrial Group of the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (which operated Windscale Works in 1957) in a paper presented to the Second United Nations International Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy, held in Geneva during 1-13 September 1958. The paper, from the proceedings of this conference, is reproduced here.

A geographical study of thyroid cancer incidence in north-west England following the Windscale nuclear reactor fire of 1957

“…For example, in Cumbria contamination was greatest in the immediate vicinity of Sellafield and to the south-east of the site, while Carlisle, Workington and Maryport (to the north of Sellafield) were hardly affected [2,5], but the study could not distinguish between thyroid cancer cases resident in areas of Cumbria contaminated at different levels of iodine-131 following the accident because only incidence data at the county level were made available to us.…”

Windscale and Kyshtym: a double anniversary

“…In contrast to Kyshtym, the Windscale accident was reported widely in the contemporaneous media; a government inquiry was initiated within days and reported within the month, although initially only a summary version of the inquiry report was made public (HMSO, 1957). Information on the magnitude of the release and the resulting concentrations and distributions of radionuclides in the environment was published during the subsequent year, and has recently been re-published to mark the anniversary (Dunster et al, 1958(Dunster et al, , 2007; the technical, human and political circumstances of the accident have been dissected in painstaking detail by Lorna Arnold in her impressive history (Arnold, 1995), and summarised in another recent editorial (Wakeford, 2007). The event, generally known as the 'Windscale accident' or the 'Windscale Pile fire', has been retrospectively rated at 5 on the INES scale (IAEA, 2001).…”

“…Following the Windscale accident, evacuation was not judged to be necessary, and monitoring in the first few days after the release indicated that transfer of 131 I to foodstuffs, especially milk, was the main hazard (Dunster et al, 1958). At that time there was no established guidance for the limitation of radiation dose to the public after an accident; the existing ICRP recommendations for internal radiation dealt only with continuous intake by workers.…”

On the occurrence of radioactive fallout over Norway as a result of the Windscale accident, October 1957

“…Ranges provided, best estimate in parentheses. d Dunster et al, 1958. begun to stretch northwards under the influence of a frontal system arriving in Europe which brought winds from the southeast and the cloud was carried over Scandinavia on the 15th of October. Useful analysis of the Windscale event with respect to movement of the radioactive cloud in the days after the fire using modern models may be found in Nelson et al (2006) and Johnson et al (2007).…”