Measurements of the radioactivity of the cloud from the accident at Windscale Works (Sellafield, England) in October 1957: data submitted to the International Geophysical Year (IGY; July 1957–December 1958)

Abstract

A fire in a nuclear reactor at Windscale Works (Sellafield, England) in October 1957 led to an uncontrolled aerial release of radionuclides. At the time of the accident air was sampled at various locations in Europe to monitor atmospheric pollution, and the opportunity was taken to measure the sampling filters for activity concentrations of iodine-131, caesium-137 and polonium-210 at the Harwell research establishment (United Kingdom); when it was not possible to perform measurements at Harwell, original measurement data were supplied. This programme of activity measurements was performed in the context of work by the Advisory Committee on Nuclear Radiation of the International Geophysical Year (IGY; July 1957–December 1958). The International Geophysical Year was an international programme of research into a comprehensive range of geophysical phenomena. The results of this measurement programme were originally reported in Harwell Memorandum AERE-M857 (1961) and this Harwell report is reproduced in this paper because of its historical interest and because it is no longer readily accessible to researchers.

Atmospheric electricity observations at Eskdalemuir Geophysical Observatory

“…The initial emissions from Windscale therefore approximately coincided with the initial PG reductions at Eskdalemuir, so it remains possible that they are related, as the sites are only about 75 km apart with the prevailing wind direction transporting material from the southwesterly to the northeast. The effect of wind direction is important: no radioactivity was detected at Eskdalemuir following the Windscale fire of October 1957 (Stewart et al, 2020), as there was the additional complication of a weather front moving towards the southeast, with light winds limiting the northwards spread of the initial release (Crabtree, 1959).…”

Atmospheric electricity observations at Eskdalemuir Geophysical Observatory

“…The initial emissions from Windscale therefore approximately coincided with the initial PG reductions at Eskdalemuir, so it remains possible that they are related, as the sites are only about 75 km apart with the prevailing wind direction transporting material from the south-westerly to the north-east. The effect of wind direction is important: no radioactivity was detected at Eskdalemuir following the Windscale fire of October 1957 (Stewart et al, 2020), as there was the additional complication of a weather front moving towards the south-east, with light winds limiting the northwards spread of the initial release (Crabtree, 1959).…”