In 1999, the BBC produced a 30 minute episode of "Disaster" (Series 3) entitled The Windscale Fire and this has now been released on DVD. It is an educational documentary which discusses the devastating fire discovered in Britain's first nuclear reactor at Windscale in 1957. The introduction to the DVD states:
Forty years ago, a catastrophic fire in a British reactor, left a legacy of damage and fallout which is still being dealt with today. The cleanup will cost over a hundred million pounds. At the back of the reactor, ruptured fuel cartridges containing uranium are still jammed in the fire damaged core, awaiting safe removal. The fire spread fallout over hundreds of miles. Some of the most dangerous contamination was kept secret, and its effects only came to light years later. Official estimates are that up to a hundred people may have died from the contamination.
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