Windscale Fire – First Public Nuclear Disaster

From Kyle Hill.

On October 10th, 1957, a nuclear reactor fire broke out at Windscale in the UK becoming the first nuclear disaster to directly impact the public. Long before Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster and the Chernobyl disaster, This [HALF-LIFE HISTORY] is the true story of the Windscale nuclear fire, the attempted government cover-up and the legacy it created.

00:00 Intro
01:42 Plutonium Pressure
07:55 Blue Inferno
11:54 Criticality Conspiracy
14:25 Collective Caution

SOURCES:

“Inside Story” Our Reactor is on Fire (TV Episode 1990) | Documentary. (1990, April 18). IMDb. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3894980/

Mahaffey, James A., author. Atomic Accidents : a History of Nuclear Meltdowns and Disasters : from the Ozark Mountains to Fukushima. New York: Pegasus Books, 2014.

Popular science. (n.d.). Google Books. https://books.google.com/books?id=Dy0DAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA92#v=onepage&q&f=false

Further consideration of the incidence of cancers around the nuclear installations at Sellafield and Dounreay. (2016).

McNally, R.J.Q., Wakeford, R., Bunch, K.J. et al. Thyroid cancer incidence in cohorts exposed in childhood to 131I released during the Windscale nuclear reactor accident at Sellafield, England, in 1957. Radiat Environ Biophys 63, 491–503 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00411-024-01087-y

Jones, S. (2016). Health effects of the Windscale Pile fire. Journal of Radiological Protection, 36(4), E23–E25. https://doi.org/10.1088/0952-4746/36/4/e23

McGeoghegan, D., & Binks, K. (2000). Mortality and cancer registration experience of the Sellafield employees known to have been involved in the 1957 Windscale accident. Journal of Radiological Protection, 20(3), 261–274. https://doi.org/10.1088/0952-4746/20/3/301

McGeoghegan, D., Whaley, S., Binks, K., Gillies, M., Thompson, K., & McElvenny, D. M. (2010). Mortality and cancer registration experience of the Sellafield workers known to have been involved in the 1957 Windscale accident: 50 year follow-up. Journal of Radiological Protection, 30(3), 407–431. https://doi.org/10.1088/0952-4746/30/3/001

Accident at Windscale No. 1 Pile on 10th October. 1957, Cmit. 302, 1957. H.M.S.O. Price Is. 3d. Net.

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Windscale fallout underestimated. (n.d.). http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7030536.stm

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Windscale: A nuclear disaster. (n.d.). http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7030281.stm

"Suppressed 1957 Windscale radioactive contamination incident revealed, UK (1989)" Newspapers.com, The Index-Journal, January 3, 1989, https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-index-journal-suppressed-1957-windsc/1957216/

Wakeford, R. (2007). The Windscale reactor accident—50 years on. Journal of Radiological Protection, 27(3), 211–215. https://doi.org/10.1088/0952-4746/27/3/e02

Windscale 1957. Anatomy of a Nuclear Accident, 3rd edn. (2007). Journal of Radiological Protection, 27(4), 513–514. https://doi.org/10.1088/0952-4746/27/4/b01

💪 JOIN [THE FACILITY] for members-only live streams, behind-the-scenes posts, and the official Discord: https://www.patreon.com/kylehill

👕 THE INTERNET IS DEAD MERCH OUT NOW! https://shop.kylehill.net

🎥 SUB TO THE GAMING CHANNEL: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfTNPE8mXGBZPC1nfVtOJTw

✅ MANDATORY LIKE, SUBSCRIBE, AND TURN ON NOTIFICATIONS

📲 FOLLOW ME ON SOCIETY-RUINING SOCIAL MEDIA:
📷 https://www.instagram.com/sci_Phile/

😎: Kyle
🎬: Charles Shattuck
🎞: Kevin Onofreo
✂: Nate Berger
📝: @adef
🤖: @clairemax
🎨: Thorsten Denk
🎼: @mey
🎹: bensound.com
🎨: Mr. Mass https://youtube.com/c/MysteryGiftMovie
🎵: freesound.org