United States Naval Academy

Today in History 10/10 (Windscale Fire)

Calder Hall and Windscale (now known as Sellafield) power stations in Cumbria, England, October 1957 (© Harold Clements/Express/Getty Images)(1957) Fire at England’s Windscale nuclear reactor
A fuel cartridge has burst in one of the channels of England’s Windscale nuclear weapons facility and catches fire, sending iodine-131 radioactive contamination into the air. Eleven tons of uranium will be ablaze before the world’s first known nuclear accident is contained two days later.
The Windscale fire of 10 October 1957 was the worst nuclear accident in Great Britain’s history, ranked in severity at level 5 out of a possible 7 on the International Nuclear Event Scale. The fire took place in Unit 1 of the two-pile Windscale facility on the northwest coast of England in Cumberland. The two graphite-moderated reactors, referred to at the time as “piles”, had been built as part of the British atomic bomb project. Windscale Pile No. 1 was operational in October 1950 followed by Pile No. 2 in June 1951.
Date: Oct 10, 1957
Location: Windscale, Seascale, Cumbria (now Sellafield)
Non-fatal injuries: Estimated 240 additional cases of thyroid cancer
Outcome: INES Level 5 (accident with wider consequences)

Windscale Schematic
Cutaway diagram of Windscale reactor
wiki/Windscale_fire
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(1957) Fire at England’s Windscale nuclear reactor.
Also on this day,

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1911 | Chinese Revolution begins as 2,000 years of imperial rule crumbles in China
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Today in History 10/10/17

The Imperial army in white uniforms marching in single file in front of a Pagoda during the Chinese Revolution, October 1911 (© Topical Press Agency/Getty Images)(1911) 2,000 years of imperial rule begins to crumble in China
The building of railways by foreign powers in China stokes nationalistic fervor, and unfair financial gain for those same foreign powers leads to violent protests. Today's Wuchang Uprising will start the Xinhai Revolution, the overthrow of more than 2 millennia of imperial rule.
The Xinhai Revolution, also known as the Chinese Revolution or the Revolution of 1911, was a revolution that overthrew China's last imperial dynasty and established the Republic of China. The revolution was named Xinhai because it occurred in 1911, the year of the Xinhai stem-branch in the sexagenary cycle of the Chinese calendar.
Start date: Oct 10, 1911
End date: Feb 12, 1912
Xinhai Revolution (Chinese characters)
Xinhai Revolution in Chinese characters

wiki/Xinhai_Revolution
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