- #1
Delta Force
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The Windscale Fire seems like it had the potential to become a much more serious incident due to actions taken in trying to get the reactor under control. First the operators ran the air fans at high speed to try to cool the reactor, but that only made the fire even more intense. Then crews injected carbon dioxide into the reactor, but the temperatures were so hot that the fire stripped oxygen from the flames. The reactor was reaching temperatures of up to 1,300 degrees Celsius and at risk of structural collapse when the decision was made to pump water into the core, but even that failed to stop the fire. At that point the reactor building was evacuated except for the Reactor Operator and Fire Chief, who made a successful effort to shut off air flow to the reactor. Although it was later found that the graphite never caught fire, it was severely damaged and the reactor continued to have significant nuclear heat. Even now there are concerns that the reactor could achieve criticality during decommissioning efforts.
Even if the incident itself had failed to progress into something worse, things could have been worse if not for Sir John Cockcroft's insistence that filtration equipment be installed to reduce radiation release in the event of a reactor fire. The Windscale site also hosted a twin production reactor to the one that caught fire, as well as four Magnox reactors, two of which were operational at the time of the fire.
Just how bad could things have gotten at Windscale?
Even if the incident itself had failed to progress into something worse, things could have been worse if not for Sir John Cockcroft's insistence that filtration equipment be installed to reduce radiation release in the event of a reactor fire. The Windscale site also hosted a twin production reactor to the one that caught fire, as well as four Magnox reactors, two of which were operational at the time of the fire.
Just how bad could things have gotten at Windscale?