Over 60 years ago, Britain flirted with a nuclear catastrophe that could have resulted in a tragedy worse than Chernobyl.
The Windscale Fire remains the UK’s worst ever nuclear accident - but its chilling memory is mostly consigned to the history books.
A catastrophic meltdown was averted by the heroic actions of a few people but a subsequent 'cover up' by authorities meant they were not properly recognised for their efforts.
On October 10 1957, uranium fuel at the Windscale plant in Cumbria overheated and caught fire, setting in motion a terrifying series of events.
Windscale deputy general manager Tom Tuohy led the efforts that day and was tasked with trying to extinguish the unprecedented fire.
After kissing his family goodbye and telling to keep the windows closed, the 39-year-old rushed to the plant less than a mile from his home.
In an act of incredible bravery, Tuohy donned protective gear before climbing 80ft to the concrete shaft that sat atop of the Number 1 nuclear pile to get a better understanding of the situation.
Peering down, he could see an unusual red glow, revealing that uranium was burning at astronomically high temperatures inside.
The countdown to disaster
Earlier that week nn October 7, Windscale workers were carrying out a procedure on the reactor’s graphite core known as annealing.
Instead of cooling the reactor down, inaccurate temperature readings showed that the process had not been successfully completed and was put into action a second time - a decision that was to prove a terrible mistake.
Control rods were withdrawn, allowing the nuclear fission process to restart and causing the graphite within the reactor to rise to dangerously high temperatures.
It was only days later that staff became aware of the fire which had begun burning uranium.
Tom Hughes and another control room operator went to the charge face of the reactor wearing protective equipment and were astonished with their findings.
“We saw to our complete horror, four channels of fuel glowing bright cherry red”, he recounted.
On Friday, 11 October, the fire had reached temperatures of up to 1,300 centigrade. Eleven tons of uranium were ablaze and the plant’s workers were desperate.
“It was white hot, it was just white hot. Nobody, I mean, nobody, can believe how hot it could possibly be”, one eyewitness would later say.
Tuohy and his team failed in their initial efforts to put out the conflagration.
First, carbon dioxide was used to extinguish the fire but did little to fan the flames.
Water was then hosed onto the reactor core, again without success.
This move was deemed highly risky which as it had the potential to cause an explosive reaction with molten metal.
Tuohy finally made the decision to shut off all cooling and ventilation systems to stop air from entering the building.
To their delight, this plan was enough to stave the fire of the oxygen that it needed and water was hosed through holes into the reactor
Over the next 24 hours the fire dwindled and was eventually extinguished and the emergency was finally over.
The aftermath
A white paper into the incident - known as the Penney report - was published two weeks later but remained classified until 1988.
Windscale was home to the UK's atomic bomb project and secrecy shrouded the facility in the years of Cold War paranoia.
It had been hoped the United States was about to begin sharing its nuclear secrets with UK atomic agency scientists and it was thought that any embarrassing revelations about Windscale could put this at risk.
The report blamed "an error of judgement" by the Windscale workers for the crisis and Prime Minister Harold Macmillan ordered that it not be released to the public.
"He covered it up, plain and simple", says his grandson and biographer, Lord Stockton.
Unlike Cheronbyl, the site was used purely for military purposes and produced enriched uranium to be used for Britain’s nuclear warheads.
Built in 1950 with the prior approval of Winston Churchill, it was hoped that the Windscale project could eventually help develop a chillingly destructive hydrogen bomb.
The British government officially estimates that up to 30 people developed thyroid cancer after hazardous radioactive waste polluted the surrounding countryside.
However, analysis revealed that a further 240 people may have died from cancers related to Windscale.
Iodine-131 and other harmful radioactive particles contaminated farms in the surrounding countryside and cow’s milk was taken from a massive 500km area next to Sellafield.
It was diluted a thousand fold and dumped into the Irish Sea leaving it partially contaminated.
But radioactive pollution from the incident would have been far higher had it not been for the foresight of one man.
During Windscale's construction, physicist Sir John Cockcroft insisted that the plant be fitted with massive ugly, chimney stacks which would help filter out leaks.
They were installed at great expense and with long delays to the project and the towers were later dubbed “Cockcroft’s Folly”.
Only 20,000 curies of radioactive materials was released into the environment thanks to their presence - far less than at Chernobyl and Fukushima.
Once the Penney Report was finally released, some thirty years after the accident, the public were made fully aware about what had happened.
The Board of Inquiry had lauded the efforts by the workers who "displayed considerable devotion to duty on the part of all concerned".
It may have taken decades, but the record had finally been put straight.
