Overview of the Windscale Piles Decontamination and Decommissioning Project

This video contains an overview of the initiative to decontaminate and decommission the Windscale Piles facility, which was damaged by a reactor fire in 1957. Kurion's cutting-edge remote and robotics technology was tapped to help with the project.

[@nevermind824]

All of this safety, but Tom tuoey stood on the top of the reactor looking directly into it for the fire in 1957....

[@deezelfairy]

And the tough 'ol bugger lived to 90. He's definitely someone who I'd consider an 'unsung hero' He never got the public recognition he deserved.

[@GuyRWood]

I've been working on the Sellafield site for the last 5 days. Absolutely incredible place! The security is phenomenal.

[@vincentrusso4332]

Update 2021

[@ChildSpaceMethod]

The gift that keeps on giving.

[@fabi57iamracer]

Air cooled reactor, what a great idea 💡 👏

[@mrcrumb4302]

...built a lot of reactors, have you?

[@fabi57iamracer]

@@mrcrumb4302 It was made to produce plutonium and tritium, I know all of that now.

[@absolutely1337]

@@mrcrumb4302 rbmk waves hello

[@deezelfairy]

Easy to criticise with hindsight - the world was still learning the physics back then, let alone harnessing it as a useful technology. The British government was cutting corners - that's undeniable. But if the USA had been a bit more amenable to it's closest ally in terms of nuclear research we probably wouldn't have cut those corners. Don't get me wrong, I'm not blaming the US, the accident was on us, but just pointing out there's multiple layers of reasons for accidents happening and the decisions made that led to them.

[@fabi57iamracer]

@@deezelfairy but the queen lied.

[@MajorT0m]

We need more of this. Subject matter I mean.

[@chrisbea49]

That reactor was quite the combination of brilliant (for the day) and stupidity (for all-time)

[@paul.alarner6410]

yet there still doing it,makes the mind boggle!

[@GeneralChase]

@@paul.alarner6410 still doing what?

[@kingofaesthetics9407]

@@GeneralChase I guess he believes that there are still reactors of the same design as the Windscale piles in operation today. I wouldn't be surprised if that was the case, anti-nuclear types aren't really known for being informed on the technology that they pride themselves on blindly hating.

[@deezelfairy]

Hindsight is 20/20

[@ZilogBob]

This video makes it sound easy.

[@Pow3llMorgan]

It mostly is. It's just very very very expensive.

[@Retroscoop]

Interesting... And how much is this all going to cost ? Make sure to also have a look at the extremely interesting docu Windscale Britain's biggest nuclear disaster, also here on KZbin. Very interesting to see how political pressure led to the accident, as politicians absolutely wanted a "special relationship" with the US. It almost led to a melt down of the reactor, and a Tsjernobyl outcome... Incredible what shocking risks were taken to please Downing Street !

[@vincentrusso4332]

W O W , great work on the editing and animation team!!

[@stuartpeters171]

How clean and green.....

[@hughezzell10000]

the irony to me is that all the people who contributed one way or another to this colossal mess are now dead.

[@EddieVBlueIsland]

No ironey here - it would be ironic if deadly radiation kept them alive. The word is coincidental.

[@deezelfairy]

Yeah, because it happened a really, really long time ago 😂 Even if you'd been a 16 year old tea-boy at Windscale at the time of the accident you'd be 83 today - where's the irony?

[@chadsimmons6347]

are they selling any radioactive souvenirs?

[@kesamek8537]

We are them.

[@deezelfairy]

​@@kesamek8537No, we're not 😂

[@tski3458]

so far they have removed only the guard shack

[@FaustoTheBoozehound]

😅😣

[@vincentrusso4332]

Update 2021?

[@wolfcatsden]

ok brown field, does that mean the property remain under the control of some one to monitor the property ?

[@123hero321]

Wolfcat Wildcat n

[@DomDoesCoasters]

Greenfield = Site completely demolished and returned to how it was before the site Brownfield = site mostly demolished with the foundation and other associated buildings being potentially used for another purpose.

[@mdmarko]

Still cleaning it up, over 60 years since the accident.

[@Steve-ou8nw]

There will never be a permanent storage facility. For the same reason the US doesn't have one: NIMBY.

[@chriswynn1582]

@Steve bizarrely even Cumbria doesn’t want a proper deep geological disposal facility. They would rather have all that waste sitting dangerously on the surface for forever and a day!

[@grahamariss2111]

Why on earth was cartridges left in the serviceable reactor 2!!! I always assumed that it was defuelled with just the fire damaged fuel left in reactor 1, but appears that like so much of wind scale it was simply left to rot for future generations.

[@Mrdivoson]

They melted inside the reactor during the fire i think so they couldn't even move them

[@grahamariss2111]

@@Mrdivoson It appears though on the video that cartridges have also been left in the serviceable reactor not the one that caught fire, until I saw that video I assumed that was developed after fire. Yes watched the video again, pile 2 has cartridges to removed and pile 1 has the fire damage.

[@Mrdivoson]

@@grahamariss2111 i think they carried on using one after the fire in the 60s. This one for power rather than nuclear weapons

[@grahamariss2111]

@@Mrdivoson No that was Calder Hall the 1st Generation Magnox that was under construction at the site at the time of the fire. It both generated power and material for bombs, this is the place we see in the film of the Queen opening the world's first Nuclear power station. My understanding is that after the fire Pile 2 was not used as it was considered unsafe and anyway Calder Hall was nearly ready.

[@1981MJD]

It was defuelled... the isotope cartridges remained.

[@MissFoxification]

I guess they don't believe there's any risk of criticality by pushing and rolling around piles of nuclear fuel... Otherwise it seems like a productive and efficient approach to an extremely difficult task. Perhaps they should mix up the very low level waste with concrete and use it to cover the entire site once completed.

[@jamjardj1974]

🤣

[@HeckyReckyOfficial]

at 3:43 are those not highly radioactive? He's just sunbathing I guess...

[@Morgernstein]

I would guess that it is equipment testing so those are just analogues to show the machine works

[@johncharley9791]

Whenever we build new nuclear power stations, there must also be in place a proven contingency plan for decommissioning.

[@deezelfairy]

They do now.

[@wolfcatsden]

How long will the graphite pile be radioactive after removal of the bundles ?

[@brtd9418]

Wolfcat Wildcat 20000 years

[@TheNecromancer6666]

Wolfcat Wildcat If it is contaminated with U235 about 700 million years.

[@MajorT0m]

Forever since everything in the universe is radioactive to some degree.

[@Balnazzardi]

@ Major Tom, well no shit sherlock, I think it was obvious how far it will be dangerously radioactive...... and the answer is that the nuclear fuel and reactor are considered to be dangerously/highly radioactive for thousands of years.

[@leeself6903]

Why the fuck do build shit like that with out any kind of plan to put it waste anyway still all end up in the sea anyway

[@fredhatfield5863]

When they said electricity will be so cheap there will be no need to meter it . I bet they did not factor in the storage and decommissioning cost .

[@winnietheshrew2957]

Windscale was never about electricity. They built the reactor to get plutonium and tritium for atom bombs.

[@fabi57iamracer]

That catchword was made in India.

[@fredhatfield5863]

@@winnietheshrew2957 I know

[@vincentrusso4332]

I never understood the intentionally heating of the graphite core.....

[@wizard3z868]

think of it like the pores of your skin normal condition they make a seal and trap in the atoms heat it up the pores open up releasing the atoms stored unwanted energy when and where you want to instead of just randomly and at super high sporadic concentrations that cld start a chain reaction of destruction

[@vincentrusso4332]

@@wizard3z868 ah....fine illustration, thank you sir.

[@EddieVBlueIsland]

Don't worry one day this will all be mined as an energy resource.

[@thecarpetman7687]

No matter what our opinions on this matter…we all on this feed have two things in common..we all desire knowledge and we all hate love island.

[@christianpervert525]

No one told these people that an air-cooled nuclear reactor was a bad idea?

[@RobertdMacGregor]

This was one of the very first reactors. All the technology was new

[@EduSanjuan777]

@@RobertdMacGregor The AGR that came after were not much better. One of those reactors is 4 times as big as an RBMK 1000 and far less powerful and efficient. At least they didn't explode... It was another case, of British doing things a different way just because we are British and know better. Taxpayer will pay for it anyway...

[@agt155]

@@EduSanjuan777 I'll take that over a Chernobyl of Fukushima.

[@EduSanjuan777]

@@agt155 Do you know about a lil som some called Windscale? Serious nuclear accidents started on UK

[@agt155]

@@EduSanjuan777 Windscale was a 1940's military breeder reactor, nothing like Magnox or AGR.

[@robozstarrr8930]

why spend all that $$$ + move the material all over the place.... just leave it and secure it ..... it's not going anywhere & it's not like there gonna build a resort spa or a shopping mall after it's cleared away!!?

[@Balnazzardi]

Well it still is a matter of safety/containing radioactive materials to safer location....Im sure there are spesific laws in UK as well about the nuclear security and how/where spend nuclear fuel and dismantled nuclear cores will be placed. Besides those reactors and the fuel inside them have stood there for more than 60 years, its about time something was done to them....You really think that dismantled/abandoned nuclear reactors and nuclear fuel should just be left where they are for infinite amount of time, rather than secure them safely away to wherever you store way your nuclear waste in UK...

[@quantumbits]

Balnazzardi You answer: 1 there are probably laws. 2. It's about time. 3.They will be safer. 1. What laws? 2.They are going to be somewhere for an indefinite period of time. 3. Where is safer? According to the video, te locations don't even exist. Would it not be less costly to simply erect security around the plant? The decommission will create dust and other hazards from sawing. removal, sorting and transport. It is amazing the animation showed a worker, without even a mask, directly supervising a shifting machine, where small particles are sorted and dumped.

[@alerighi]

@@quantumbits Obviously it was a test not with real material. Otherwise even staying a couple of minutes that close to irradiated fuel elements would mean certain death in a couple of days. When they use it on real fuel elements it will be done in a heavily shilded environment, and the workers operate with remote controlled robotic arms.

[@quantumbits]

@@alerighi Not a test...Propaganda

[@quantumbits]

@@alerighi So in the test they did not follow what would be the real procedure. Then test for what purpose?

[@MrTommyboy68]

Yep. Sure am glad nuclear reactors are so clean.

[@crystallake6198]

ahhh 250,000 year mistakes that we try to pass off as 75 year mistakes. good times.

[@litefoot900]

A suitable waste disposal facility (IRISH SEA) IF NAMED MY DOG NIREX HE COULD SHIT IN OTHER PEOPLES BACK YARD ?

[@964cuplove]

Those early UK atomic bombs didn’t come cheap ... I’m glad germany ditched nuclear power and hope the decision stands.

[@northsimulation3386]

These weren’t for power. There sole purpose was plutonium production. They have no correlation to power reactors.

[@agt155]

How you feeling now?

[@kingofaesthetics9407]

@@agt155 Hopefully very cold.

[@beingatliberty]

maybe solar , wind , tide and dams really isnt a bad idea ?!…

[@gregg4164]

These reactors where not used for generating energy. Their sole purpose was to manufacture weapons grade Uranium and plutonium for nuclear weapons.

[@StuartOliver83]

To cheap to meter lol until the clean up 😂

[@adder3597]

Windscale wasn't a commercial reactor and nor was it designed with decommissioning in mind.

[@StuartOliver83]

@@adder3597 this is true I was talking shite lol although was referring to nuclear power plants

[@stuartellison4017]

@@StuartOliver83 this isn't a nuclear power plant.

[@paul.alarner6410]

removing it all to do what with it exactly?,seems best left alone for maybe a million years untill they work out what actualy to do with it,or just waste more of our money untill they can work out what to do with it,vids like this make me puke,rest assured conditions will be nothing like in this glib video!

[@davidallen7977]

Why cant we just launch it into space and wave goodbye to it?

[@quantumbits]

THat would be cool...problem is it weighs tons. And the history of space launch reliability makes it a risk the world might not want to take.

[@puo2123]

Why are you so dumb? Just google it or use your brain donkey.

[@DomDoesCoasters]

Are you seriously that stupid..

[@adder3597]

@@DomDoesCoasters It's not actually an especially bad idea, with the exception of rocket launches being prone to Spontaneous Unplanned Disassembly.

[@DomDoesCoasters]

There's that and also the cost per Kilo.. Its the stupidest idea ever conceived

[@paul.alarner6410]

more propaganda b.s !!