Report on the accident at Windscale No. 1 Pile on 10 October 1957.

A serious fire developed in the core of a nuclear reactor at Windscale Works, Sellafield, northwest England, which led to the release of significant quantities of radioactive material into the environment during 10-11th October, 1957. In 1957, Windscale Works was operated by the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA), and on 15th October it was announced by the Chairman of the UKAEA that a Committee of Inquiry had been established under the chairmanship of Sir William Penney to conduct an investigation into the accident. The Committee sat at Windscale Works during 17-25th October, interviewed 37 people (some more than once), and examined 73 technical exhibits. The Committee reported to the Chairman of the UKAEA on 26th October. The Report of the Committee formed the technical basis of a UK Government White Paper (Cmnd. 302) published on 8th November, 1957, but the Penney Report itself was not published, and was only made public (at what is now The National Archives, TNA, Kew) in January, 1988. The original Report of the Committee of Inquiry is reproduced here from a copy of the Report supplied by TNA from TNA File AB 86/25.

Clouds, airplanes, trucks and people: carrying radioisotopes to and across Mexico

The aim of this paper is to describe the early stages of Mexican nuclearization that took place in contact with radioisotopes. This history requires a multilayered narrative with an emphasis in North-South asymmetric relations, and in the value of education and training in the creation of international asymmetrical networks. Radioisotopes were involved in exchanges with the United States since the late 1940s, but also with Canada. We also describe the context of implementation of Eisenhower´s Atoms for Peace initiative in Mexico that opened the door to training programs at both the Comisión Nacional de Energía Nuclear and the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. Radioisotopes became the best example of the peaceful applications of atomic energy, and as such they fitted the Mexican nuclearization process that was and still is defined by its commitment to pacifism. In 1955 Mexico became one of the 16 members of the atomic fallout network established by the United Nations. As part of this network, the first generation of Mexican (women) radio-chemists was trained. By the end of the 1960s, radioisotopes and biological markers were being produced in a research reactor, prepared and distributed by the CNEN within Mexico. We end up this paper with a brief reflection on North-South nuclear exchanges and the particularities of the Mexican case (AU)

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District surveys following the Windscale incident, October 1957. 1958.

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.

British atomic tests in Australia.

The United Kingdom and Australia have reached agreement on the British payment for cleaning up the Maralinga (South Australia) site at which the UK tested some of its atomic weapons in the 1960s. The tests were conducted amid great secrecy and only in recent years has the truth about the health hazards fully emerged. The peace movement opposed the tests and its stand has been vindicated. Also vindicated have been the claims by Aborigines that more damage was done by the tests than was earlier admitted.

John R. Goldsmith on the usefulness of epidemiological data to identify links between point sources of radiation and disease.

Sometimes the demonstration of a plausible risk is met with inappropriate attempts to explain it away rather than to protect the health of the public. This may have occurred in the case of leukemia in the vicinity of nuclear installations. In 1989, John Goldsmith prepared a document on this topic for the World Health Organization that persuasively argued for the association to be examined vigorously and to be taken seriously as a potential health risk. However, other commentators on the problem have seemed intent on raising unsubstantial methodological objections and insisting on standards of evidence inappropriate to the justification of action intended to protect the health of the public. Recommendations for resolving this specific issue are made, but the overriding concern is that the level of proof required to justify action for health protection should be less than that required to constitute causation as a scientific principle.

Experimental release of 131I: the Green Run.

In December 1949, a large amount of 131I was released to the air at Hanford during the dissolving of irradiated uranium fuel for a classified military experiment called the "Green Run." Reports of the release have varied from about 0.15-0.3 PBq. Using, as a guide, the reported measurements of 133Xe released during the experiment, the amount of 131I released has been reanalyzed. The results indicate that about 0.40 +/- 0.12 PBq (11 +/- 3 kCi) was released, somewhat larger than the largest previous estimates.