| Windscale Piles | |
|---|---|
| Designed and built by | Ministry of Supply |
| Operational | 1950 to 1957 |
| Status | Undergoing decommissioning |
| Main parameters of the reactor core | |
| Fuel (fissile material) | Metallic natural uranium, slightly enriched uranium |
| Fuel state | Solid (rods) |
| Neutron energy spectrum | Information missing |
| Primary control method | Control rods |
| Primary moderator | Nuclear graphite |
| Primary coolant | Air |
| Reactor usage | |
| Primary use | Plutonium production |
| Power (thermal) | 2 × 180 MW |
| Remarks | Shut down after the Windscale fire on 10 October 1957 |
The Windscale Piles were two air-cooled graphite-moderated nuclear reactors on the Windscale nuclear site in Cumberland (now known as Sellafield site, Cumbria) on the north-west coast of England. The two reactors, referred to at the time as "piles", were built as part of the British post-war atomic bomb project and produced weapons-grade plutonium for use in nuclear weapons.
Windscale Pile No. 1 became operational in October 1950 followed by Pile No. 2 in June 1951.[1] They were intended to last five years, but operated for seven until shut down following the Windscale fire on 10 October 1957. Nuclear decommissioning operations commenced in the 1980s and are estimated to last beyond 2040. Visible changes have been seen as the chimneys were slowly dismantled from top-down; Pile 2's chimney being reduced to the height of adjacent buildings in the early 2000s. However, the demolition of pile 1 chimney has taken much longer as it was significantly contaminated after the 1957 fire. The reactor cores still remain to be dismantled.
- ^ Force V: The history of Britain's airborne deterrent, by Andrew Brookes. Jane's Publishing Co Ltd; First Edition 1 Jan. 1982, ISBN 0710602383, p.9.