We almost lost everything - Lake District Mega Disaster

The Windscale fires in 1957 almost wiped out the Lake District as we know it. This Chernobyl like event could have been the end of the place many call home.

It is a brilliant documentry that inspired me to make this short film about it.

If you see ads on this video it is due to copy right as i do not monetise my channel. I do it as a hobby.

[iwanabana]

came for the strid, stayed for the rest! keep it up!

[charliefarleyba]

Goodness me Jack, that near miss is so frightening to learn of, I knew absolutely nothing about it. As you say, the next time I'm up there, whenever I'm up there, I shall now think of, and quietly thank, both Mr.Tom Hughes & Mr.John Cockroft. Thank you for sharing Jack, nicely put together and very thought provoking.

[eastwoodsadventures]

Perfect tone and pace to this very sobering documentary. Better than many a TV production.

[SilveniumTheDrifter]

Beautiful video - you worded things very romantically, and your respect and love for your homeland really shows.
Not just in the thing you said, but the tone of your voice as well. A+.

[BenRobson]

Nice one Jack. Really well produced, and was nice to watch a different style video! Well done mate 😊

[jonnimcfarlane]

That's some big ass balls Tom had!

[PhilipBallGarry]

It's incredible knowing what we know now about modern reactors to envisage a very early (not to mention primitive) type like the Windscale Piles isn't it? That the core would be built standing up on it's edge and cooled by fans blowing air up a chimney exhausting to the environment! 😳.
Of course, we have to remember that at the time, the race was on to provide our own nuclear deterrent for the sake of national security. No doubt, many corners were cut during the design and construction of the two piles, the approach of which may seem "gung ho" to us now.

[MrHistorian]

A very good video about a rarely discussed incident.
The energy release was due to a storage of Wigner energy, which is caused by the displacement of carbon atoms in the graphite core to a metastable energy level above normal. The energy is released as they return to their normal state as the core is overheated. The process was not fully understood, though they'd released it about 8 times before.
Disaster was averted by the heroism of the staff and Sir John Cockcroft's foresight: had Cockcroft's follies not been installed, most of Cumbria would have become a radioactive wasteland.
The filters could only stop the particulates. Volatile Iodine 131, Xenon 133 and some Caesium 137 were released and this was well known at the time. Unfortunately, it was not known that some Polonium 210 had also been emitted, and this is highly dangerous.

There was a very good first hand account by one of the site managers in New Scientist in Oct 1982 (when the 25 year rule on security expired!).

[minacapella]

Saw a different video on this one before I even knew of your channel. Really love your take on it though, you make it so much more personal and impactful.

[scottlewisparsons]

Wow! What a video. I did know of the Windscale disaster but not any details. Thank you for another very informative video. All the best from Sydney Australia 🇦🇺

[chrisbentleywalkingandrambling]

Winscale, 3 Mile Island. Chernobyl, Fukushima and we never seem to learn. Thank you for reminding us of our own History.

[cassandra]

It is very important to remember that nuclear energy doesn't cause destruction like this on its own, only when paired with poor practices, limited knowledge, and most importantly, a careless government. Sellafield, the power plant that Windscale is a part of, is one of the worst nuclear plants in the world.
Other energy forms, like coal, cause similar destruction, when likewise paired with poor practice, limited knowledge, and a careless government

[Jaywilliamskhan]

Great lil bit of history there fella 👍👍

[alepie]

Great doc. You should make more like this

[-Eckhart]

So surely all those gardens are radioactive to this day?

[GregerBurman]

Very good story telling! I didn't know about this disaster and near catastrophe.

[esmewitch]

I knew nothing about this, I was born the next year. I did grow up with a huge distrust of Windscale so my parents must have had some inkling of it, which was passed on.

I know when my son was small, his school wanted my permission to take his class for a visit here. I did not want him to go but he persuaded me otherwise. I wish that I had stood firm on this as I still mistrusted the place, but he did not want to stand out among his class.

[dogphlap]

I remember this as a kid, it made the BBC news but of course the details were few. We did hear about the government buying up the milk production for the downwind area (which apparently was much larger than recent history suggested it should have been), enriched with strontium 90 if my memory is correct. Apparently the block that housed the rods was graphite which the scientist thought would not burn, but it did.

[texturesofwater]

Congrats on the well made short doc. Well written and edited. If you enjoy doing this then it would be fun to see more, especially stories about northern England and Great Britain.

This reminds of a local issue in Nevada, Utah, and Arizona. People's health is affected by fallout from nuclear testing that was done in southern Nevada in the 1950's. These people, known as Downwinders, are often trying to get the government to be accountable for this situation. It's sad.

[minchmoorramblers]

Great video but that was Tom Touhy not Tom Hughes. Tom sadly died recently. Love the video though mate. Scary that those spent nuclear fuel particles were raining down on Cumbria. They contained worse things than Uranium. They contained a plethora of fission products (such as Strontium 90) and activation products (such as plutonium 239). Radioactive isotopes which are dramatically more radioactive than uranium itself. They are a reaction product formed by the neutron bombardment of Uranium in the core.