What do you remember about the Windscale accident?

Question

The Chairman of the Public Health committee for South Westmorland Rural District Council tried, unsuccessfully, to get the consumption of dairy products and meat banned.

I was 14 at the time and he was my father.

They did change the name. Of course, people living in Cumberland and Westmorland were all peasants and expendable, and much too stupid to remember that Sellafield was formerly called Calder Hall/Windscale.

To Budding author: As far as I can remember, the ban on milk which my father proposed was not just for 4 days.
I'm just interested, 50 years on. You can't deny there was a cover up.

Answer 1

They did not just think the people of Westmoorland and Cumbria were stupid they thought we were all stupid and they still do. They also put the blame unfairly on the workers, the very people who had to sort out their mess at great risk to them selves and perhaps the whole of the Islands of Britain. In hindsight Sir William Penny and the then Prime Minister had a lot to answer for but of course they let others take the blame, That's the nature of that kind of people.

Answer 2

I worked at the plant, on and off for about 10 years, long after the accident!
I was on contract, I don't live in the area, but I lived locally while working in the area, my favourite pub was full of local farmers.
I had heard about this fire and leakage and had a lot of chat with these locals about the event, in fact I still keep in touch with some of these old timers.
I am puzzled to know why you think dairy products were not banned, it only took a few days to realise the milk was contaminated, it was then immediately banned, all over Cumbria and parts of the North East, so no milk means no dairy products!
The farmers actually poured the milk into rivers and streams.
Meat? I don't recall any info about that.
It's been about 50 years since this 'event' took place, I don't recall hearing about any fatalities, and folk are still being checked out for any after effects.
A lesson was learnt, it could have been a lot worse.
I doubt it could happen again.
Having said that, I was on site working recently and during the 9/11 event, security was very high , they had even thought up a protection scheme for any 'stray' air craft, two very large and heavily armed jets appeared almost immediatiatly, any 'strays' would have been blasted away, passengers or not.
I knew there were some very vunerable buildings on site, holding and making 'nasty' stuff, I also found out some pratt had drawn a map of the site and pinpointed these buildings and it was posted on the internet!!!
Green peace maybe??
For those still living in the area, the 'vunerable' buldings have been sorted, and even if an airplane did crash into the place there are so many built in safety factors.(not needing operators) it would cause no mass contamination.
Just as a foot note, the ban on milk , was or a lot more than 4 days, it was banned until tests proved that the very minor contamination was all clear, (and the contamination was in fact very minor in the begining).

Answer 3

Yes I remember this I think I was about your age. i thought it had been banned for a while the words (I can't spell) STRONTIUM B spring to mind and was supposed to be particularly dangerous in milk and dairy products. I bet if it had happened near the seat of power they would have made a bigger fuss about it. Perhaps we were just an opportunist experiment

Answer 4

Ther was a small amount of radioactive material lost but the newspapers built it up so much the people panicked i'm ok except for the extra hand on my head.

Answer 5

Yes I remember that happening, didn't they change the name to Sellafield afterwards to disassociate themselves from the disaster?