Windscale Fire, October 1957

When a routine procedure went wrong in October 1957, a fire broke out at the Windscale nuclear power station in Cumbria, UK. By the time it was put out, radiation had been sent across Britain and Europe. Jonny Wilkes reveals what happened, and why we should be grateful that it wasn’t much worse. Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, Fukushima: three names that have gone down in infamy; bywords for the nightmare scenarios that can occur when the production of nuclear power goes disastrously wrong. Before them all though, was Windscale.