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The Atomic Energy Research Establishment (known as AERE or 'Harwell') near Harwell, Oxfordshire was the main centre for atomic energy research and development in the United Kingdom from the 1940s to the 1990s. St. ...
This article concerns the energy stored in the nuclei of atoms; for the use of nuclear fission as a power source, see Nuclear power. ...
Founding In 1945 John Cockcroft was asked to set up a research laboratory in order to further the use of nuclear fission for both military purposes and generating energy. The criteria for selection involved finding somewhere remote with a good water supply, but within reach of good transport links and a university with a nuclear physics laboratory. This more or less limited the choice to Oxford or Cambridge. It had been decided that an RAF airfield would be chosen; the aircraft hangars being ideal to house the large atomic piles that would need to be built. Although Cambridge University had the better nuclear physics facility (the Cavendish Laboratory), the RAF did not want to abandon any of its eastern airfields (because of the new threat of the cold war), therefore Harwell was chosen when the RAF made the airfield available. RAF Harwell, was some sixteen miles south of Oxford near Didcot and the village of Harwell, and on 1 January 1946 the Atomic Energy Research Establishment was formed, coming under the Ministry of Supply. The scientists mostly took over both accommodations and work buildings from the departing RAF. See also: John Cockroft (politician) Sir John Douglas Cockcroft (May 27, 1897 - September 18, 1967) was a British physicist. ...
For the generation of electrical power by fission, see Nuclear power plant. ...
This box: Nuclear physics is the branch of physics concerned with the nucleus of the atom. ...
This article is about the city of Oxford in England. ...
This article is about the city in England. ...
This box: Nuclear physics is the branch of physics concerned with the nucleus of the atom. ...
Plaque, at old site Entrance, old site, Free School Lane The Cavendish Laboratory is the University of Cambridges Department of Physics, and is part of the universitys School of Physical Sciences. ...
RAF Harwell was a Royal Air Force airfield in Oxfordshire, England, and later the site of the Atomic Energy Research Establishment. ...
This article is about the city of Oxford in England. ...
, Didcot is a town in the Thames Valley, in the English county of Oxfordshire (although formerly in Berkshire). ...
St. ...
is the 1st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ...
Year 1946 (MCMXLVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full 1946 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...
The Ministry of Supply (MoS) was a department of the UK Government formed in 1939 to co-ordinate the supplying of equipment to the British armed forces, headed by the Minister of Supply. ...
RAF redirects here. ...
The early laboratory had several specialist divisions: Chemistry (initially headed by Egon Bretscher, later by Robert Spence), General Physics (H.W.B. Skinner), Nuclear Physics (initially headed by Otto Frisch, later E. Bretscher), Reactor Physics (John Dunworth), Theoretical Physics (Klaus Fuchs, later Brian Flowers), Isotopes (Henry Seligmann) and Engineering (Harold Tongue, later Robert Jackson). Directors after Cockcroft included Basil Schonland, Arthur Vick and Walter Marshall. Klaus Fuchs ID badge at Los Alamos. ...
Sir Basil Schonland OBE CBE (2 February 1896 - 24 November 1972) was the first president of the South African Council for Scientific and Industrial Research. ...
Early reactors Such was the interest in nuclear power and the priority devoted to it in those days that the first reactor, GLEEP, was operating by 15 August 1947. GLEEP (Graphite Low Energy Experimental Pile) was a low energy (3 kilowatt) graphite-moderated air-cooled reactor. The first reactor in Western Europe, it was remarkably long-lived, operating until 1990. Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ...
This article is about the day of the year. ...
Year 1947 (MCMXLVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1947 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...
The kilowatt (symbol: kW) is a unit for measuring power, equal to one thousand watts. ...
A successor to GLEEP, called BEPO (British Experimental Pile 0) was constructed based on the experience with GLEEP, and commenced operation in 1948. BEPO was shut down in 1968.
LIDO was an enriched uranium thermal swimming pool reactor which operated from 1956 to 1972 and was mainly used for shielding and nuclear physics experiments. It was fully dismantled and returned to a green field site in 1995.
A pair of larger 26 MW reactors, DIDO and PLUTO, which used enriched uranium with a heavy water moderator came online in 1956 and 1957 respectively. These small reactors were used primarily for testing the behaviour of different materials under intense neutron irradiation to help decide what materials to build reactor components out of. A sample could be irradiated for a few months to simulate the radiation dose which it would receive over the lifetime of a power reactor. They also took over commercial isotope production from BEPO after that was shut down. DIDO and GLEEP themselves were shut down in 1990 and the fuel, moderator and ancillary buildings removed. The GLEEP reactor and the hangar it was situated in were decommissioned 2005. The current plans are to decommission the BEPO, DIDO and PLUTO reactors by 2020. The megawatt (symbol: MW) is a unit for measuring power corresponding to one million (106) watts. ...
Aeneas recounting the Trojan War to Dido. ...
PLUTO was a nuclear reactor at the Atomic Energy Research Establishment at Harwell, Oxfordshire in the United Kingdom, one of five reactors on the site. ...
This article is about the chemical element. ...
Heavy water is dideuterium oxide, or D2O or 2H2O. It is chemically the same as normal water, H2O, but the hydrogen atoms are of the heavy isotope deuterium, in which the nucleus contains a neutron in addition to the proton found in the nucleus of any hydrogen atom. ...
This does not cite any references or sources. ...
This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...
For other uses, see Isotope (disambiguation). ...
Zeta One of the most significant experiments to occur at AERE was the ZETA fusion power experiment. An early attempt to build a large-scale nuclear fusion reactor, the project was started in 1954, and the first successes were achieved in 1957. In 1958 the project was shut down, as it was believed that no further progress could be made with the kind of design that ZETA represented. (see Timeline of nuclear fusion). It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Pinch (plasma physics). ...
Internal view of the JET tokamak superimposed with an image of a plasma taken with a visible spectrum video camera. ...
Timeline of significant events in the study and use of nuclear fusion: 1929 - Atkinson and Houtermans used the measured masses of light elements and applied Einsteins discovery that E=mc² to predict that large amounts of energy could be released by fusing small nuclei together. ...
Organisational history In 1954 AERE was incorporated into the newly formed United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA). Harwell and other laboratories were to assume responsibility for atomic energy research and development. It was part of the Department of Trade and Industry. The United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) was established in 1954 as a statutory corporation to oversee and pioneer the development of nuclear energy within the United Kingdom. ...
During the 1980s the slowdown of the British nuclear energy program resulted in a greatly reduced demand for the kind of work being done by the UKAEA. Pressures on government spending also reduced the funding available. Reluctant to merely disband a quality scientific research organisation, UKAEA was required to divert its research effort to the solving of scientific problems for industry by providing paid consultancy or services. UKAEA was ordered to operate on a Trading Fund basis, i.e. to account for itself financially as though it was a private corporation, while remaining fully government owned. After several years of transition, UKAEA was divided in the early 1990s. UKAEA retained ownership of all land and infrastructure and of all nuclear facilities, and of businesses directly related to nuclear power. The remainder was privatised as AEA Technology and floated on the London Stock Exchange. Harwell Laboratory contained elements of both organisations, though the land and infrastructure was owned by UKAEA. AEA Technology plc was formed in 1996 as the privatised offshoot of the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority. ...
The Source by Greyworld, in the new LSE building Paternoster Square. ...
The name Atomic Energy Research Establishment was dropped at the same time, and the site became known as the Harwell International Business Centre. The adjacent site known as Chilton/Harwell Science Campus houses the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory and Diamond Light Source. In 2007, both sites started to use the name Harwell Science and Innovation Campus. [1] Aerial view of Rutherford Appleton Lab. ...
Diamond Light Source is a synchrotron research facility located on the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Oxfordshire, England. ...
See also AWE plc logo The Atomic Weapons Establishment, Aldermaston (formerly the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment, Aldermaston) is situated in the UK, just 7 miles north of Basingstoke and approximately 14 miles south-west of Reading, Berkshire, near a village called Aldermaston, bordering with Tadley. ...
List of nuclear reactors is a comprehensive annotated list of all the nuclear reactors of the world, sorted by country. ...
Split image of JET with right side showing hot plasma during a shot. ...
External links - Information about the Harwell site, present day
- Speech by Sir John Cockcroft
- History of UK nuclear research
- Fusion experiments from the British Science Museum
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