Windscale Report: a nuclear apologia

Journal Article · Thu Jun 01 04:00:00 EDT 1978 · Bull. At. Sci.; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1080/00963402.1978.11458522· OSTI ID:6861298

Patterson, W C

Government representatives have pointed repeatedly with pride to Britain's longest nuclear planning inquiry, The Windscale Inquiry, as a model of open examination of a sensitive nuclear proposal. The official Report of the Windscale Inquiry, published in March 1978, bears little relationship to the proceedings of the Inquiry, according to the author. Instead, the Report is a heavy-handed nuclear apologia, he says, so clumsily one-sided as to provoke unease even among many Britons previously unmoved by the issue which gave rise to the inquiry. Windscale, built following WW II to produce plutonium for Britain's nuclear weapons, is now operated by British Nuclear Fuels Ltd. In 1973, BNFL began to plan construction of a new full-scale oxide-fuel reprocessing plant. Protests delayed construction until the inquiry was planned and the inquiry team was formulated in March 1977. When the Inquiry ended, the inspector closeted himself to write the Report. The Report recommended that the oxide fuel reprocessing plant be built immediately. BNFL had asserted that the proposed thermal oxide reprocessing plant, THORP, was necessary for the management of spent fuel from British and other nuclear plants; that it was desirable for ''energy conservation,'' by recovering uranium and plutonium for re-use; that radioactive emissions within and outside the plant would pose no hazard; and that the servicing of foreign customers would not increase the risk of proliferation of nuclear weapons, but would rather help to persuade other countries not to reprocess their own fuel. The inspector agreed without qualification and with emphasis. In doing so he made no attempt even to describe the detailed evidence on either side, or to discuss the cases advanced by objectors. The author discusses the principal conclusions of the report and cites its futility. (MCW)

• OSTI ID: 6861298
• Journal Information: Bull. At. Sci.; (United States), Journal Name: Bull. At. Sci.; (United States) Vol. 34:6; ISSN BASIA
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS
210700 -- Nuclear Power Plants-- Regulation & Licensing
29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY
290600* -- Energy Planning & Policy-- Nuclear Energy
AIR COOLED REACTORS
DECISION MAKING
ENERGY CONSERVATION
ENERGY POLICY
EUROPE
FUEL CYCLE
GAS COOLED REACTORS
GOVERNMENT POLICIES
GRAPHITE MODERATED REACTORS
NATURAL URANIUM REACTORS
NUCLEAR POWER
PLUTONIUM PRODUCTION REACTORS
PLUTONIUM RECYCLE
POWER
PRODUCTION REACTORS
REACTORS
REPROCESSING
SEPARATION PROCESSES
THERMAL REACTORS
UNITED KINGDOM
WINDSCALE PRODUCTION REACTORS