United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority: Committee of Inquiry into the Accident at...

AB 86

1950-1989

This series includes the report of the Committee of Inquiry into the Accident at Windscale No 1 Pile on 10 October 1957, files from earlier record series and metallic objects affected by the accident.

Public Record(s)

English

104 files and cases

Open unless otherwise stated

from 1987 United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority

Topics

Nuclear energy

AB 86/1-16 are audio tapes; in March 2013 they were transferred to the British Library Sound Archive (with the new references G10/01/01-16).

The Committee of Inquiry was set up by the Chairman of the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority, Lord Plowden, under the Chairmanship of Sir William Penney, KBE, FRS, Director of the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment, Aldermaston, and a full member of the UKAEA.

The members of the committee of inquiry were:Dr B F J Schonland, CBE, FRS, Deputy Director of the Atomic Energy Research Establishment, HarwellProfessor J M Kay, MA, PhD, AMIMechE, AMIMChemE, Professor of Engineering (Nuclear), Imperial College of Science and TechnologyProfessor J Diamond, MSc, WhSch, MIMechE, Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Manchester UniversityThe secretary to the committee was Mr D E H Peirson, Secretary of the UKAEA.

The terms of reference of the committee were:To investigate the cause of the accident at Windscale No 1 Pile on October 1957 and the measures taken to deal with it and its consequences; and to report.

The inquiry opened of 17 October 1957, seven days after the accident, and took evidence from 37 witnesses on eight of the nine days from 17 to 25 October 1987. The committee's report was completed on 26 October 1957 and submitted to Lord Plowden.