Atomic Energy Research Establishment
The Atomic Energy Research Establishment (AERE or colloquially Harwell ) in Harwell near Didcot was the main center for atomic energy research and development in Great Britain from 1946 to the 1990s .
history
In 1945 John Cockcroft was commissioned to set up a research laboratory for the use of nuclear fission for military purposes and for energy generation. The criteria for the selection were a remote location with a good water supply but within reach and with good transport links to a university with a nuclear physics laboratory. As a result, the choice was more or less limited to the area around Oxford or Cambridge . An RAF airfield was chosen because the existing aircraft hangars were considered ideal for building a large nuclear reactor. Although Cambridge University had better nuclear physics equipment at the Cavendish Laboratory at the time, the RAF did not want to forego one of its more strategically located airfields because of the new threat posed by the looming Cold War . Harwell was therefore chosen and the RAF made the airfield available there.
On January 1, 1946, the Atomic Energy Research Establishment was founded under the Ministry of Supply . The scientists took over both the accommodations and work buildings after the RAF withdrew.
The reactors
The interest in nuclear energy was so great in the early days of the AERE that the first reactor, GLEEP (Graphite Low Energy Experimental Pile), could be started up on August 15, 1947. GLEEP was a low energy reactor (3 kilowatts) with graphite-moderated air-cooled fuel rods. It was the first reactor in Western Europe and was remarkably durable, allowing it to operate until 1990.
A successor to GLEEP, called BEPO (British Experimental Pile 0), was built based on the experience with GLEEP and put into operation in 1948. BEPO was shut down in 1968.
LIDO was a swimming pool reactor for enriched uranium that was operated from 1956 to 1972 and was mainly used for shielding and nuclear physics experiments. It was completely dismantled in 1995 and the area was redesigned into a green meadow.
A pair of the larger 26 MW reactors, DIDO and Pluto, which used enriched uranium in heavy water as moderators , were first powered up in 1956 and 1957. These small reactors were primarily used to test the behavior of different materials under intense radiation with neutrons in order to decide which materials can be used in reactor component construction. Samples of material could be irradiated for a few months to simulate the dose of radiation they would receive over the life of a power reactor. The reactor was also used for the commercial production of isotopes from the BEPO reactor. DIDO and Pluto were both decommissioned in 1990 and all fuel, moderators, and outbuildings were removed. The GLEEP reactor and the hangar in which it was located were shut down in 2005. It is planned to shut down the BEPO, DIDO and PLUTO reactors by 2020.
The ZETA nuclear fusion experiment
One of the most important experiments was the ZETA nuclear fusion reactor study. It was an early attempt to build a large-scale nuclear fusion reactor, the project started in 1954, and the first successes were achieved in 1957. In 1958 the project was shut down when it was believed that no further progress could be made with the ZETA principle.
Organizational changes
The AERE initially had several departments: chemistry (originally headed by Egon Bretscher , later by Robert Spence ), general physics ( Herbert Skinner ), nuclear physics (originally headed by Otto Frisch , later headed by Egon Bretscher), reactor physics (John Dunworth), theoretical physics ( Klaus Fuchs , later Brian Flowers ), isotopes (Henry Seligmann) and engineering (Harold Zunge, later Robert Jackson). Following John Cockcroft, Basil Schonland , Arthur Vick and Walter Marshall were directors.
In 1954 the AERE was transferred to the newly founded United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA). Harwell and other laboratories took responsibility for the research and development of atomic energy. They were subordinate to the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI).
In the 1980s, the weakening of the UK's atomic energy program resulted in greatly reduced demand for the type of work UKAEA is doing. The pressure on government spending reduced the available funds. They were unwilling to simply dissolve AERE with its high quality scientific research, so the UKAEA was obliged to direct its research efforts towards solving scientific problems for the industry by offering paid advice or services.
The UKAEA was mandated to become financially independent as if it were a private company, although it remained wholly state-owned. After several years of transition, the UKAEA was split up in the early 1990s. The UKAEA retained ownership of the land, infrastructure and all nuclear facilities, as well as companies directly involved in nuclear energy. The rest was privatized as AEA Technology and traded on the London Stock Exchange. The Harwell Laboratory then included elements from both organizations, although the land and infrastructure were owned by UKAEA.
The Atomic Energy Research Establishment name was dropped at the same time and the site was renamed the Harwell International Business Center . There's the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory there , which houses the Science and Technology Facilities Council including the ISIS neutron source and the Diamond Light Source . In 2006 the name Harwell Science and Innovation Campus was introduced. In February 2009, part of the campus, the remaining nuclear facilities, were transferred to Research Sites Restoration Limited (RSRL), which will decommission the remaining facilities on behalf of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority . The management of the rest of the campus was transferred to the Goodman Group, an international real estate group.
literature
- Nick Hance Harwell: The ENIGMA revealed , Enhance Publ., 2006
Web links
Footnotes
Coordinates: 51 ° 34'59 " N , 1 ° 18'18.5" W.