The fireplace of Windscale Pile One had a strange silhouette: a top was surmounted by a massive head. This higher volume was not an architectural whim. It housed a filtration system added late, in an unusual location, at the very top of the chimney.
The protection was ironically nicknamed Cockcroft’s Folly, named after scientist John Cockcroft. In 1957, a fire broke out in the reactor. The filters then take on an importance that no mockery can diminish.
According to Sellafield and the UK Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, they capture about 95% of the radioactive dust produced in the accident. This percentage does not mean that any discharge has been stopped, nor that the fire has been without consequences: it describes the action of the filters on the dust.
The demolition of the chimney, begun in 2019, brings this detail to light: this contested precaution had retained much of the dust from the fire.
What we know
The 95% figure is an estimate of captured dust, not all releases.
To go to the source
References accessed October 11, 2026. Linked pages may be in another language.
Signaler une erreur ou apporter une précision
