Abstract
The ninth anneal of Pile No.1 was due in early October 1957. Formerly anneals had been carried out after 30 000 megawatt/ days of irradiation, but the Windscale Technical Committee had recently decided to extend the interval to 50 000 megawatt/days. However, the pile group manager, Ron Gausden, had asked for the change to be made in two steps, to 40 000 megawatt/days on this occasion and to 50 000 later. So the ninth anneal was taking place after a longer irradiation period than before. Some small pockets of graphite, mainly in the front lower part of the pile, had apparently failed to release Wigner energy in the previous anneal and in these areas the irradiation probably amounted to 80 000 megawatt/days.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes and References
It reached Belgium late on 11 October, Frankfurt late on 12 October and Norway some time on 15 October. The path of the cloud was followed at the time by means of air sampling and more recently has been calculated by the use of trajectory analysis. Varying accounts of the meteorological conditions are given in Cmnd 302 (HMSO 1957), J. Crabtree ‘The travel and diffusion of radioactive material emitted during the Windscale accident: Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society 85 (1977); Cmnd 1225, Appendix H (HMSO 1960); H. J. Dunster, H. Howells and W. L. Templeton, ‘District surveys following the Windscale accident, 1957. Proceedings of the 2nd UN Conference on Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy 18 (1958) pp. 296–308
Copyright information
© 1992 The United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Arnold, L. (1992). The Ninth Anneal. In: Windscale 1957. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-10582-3_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-10582-3_4
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-10584-7
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-10582-3
eBook Packages: Palgrave Social & Cultural Studies CollectionSocial Sciences (R0)