Sellafield Tourist Information

Sellafield Visitor Centre & History

It was here at Windscale, Sellafield's previous name, in 1947 that the UK first started to produce plutonium under the Attlee government who wanted to build a British atomic bomb. This site is home to the Thorp Reprocessing Plant, and the worlds very first industrial scale nuclear processing plant.

Problems began to emerge at Windscale in 1957 when there was a serious fire which resulted in the release of large amounts of radioactive energy. There is a long line of safety hazard incidents, including recently in 2000 when a report by the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (NII) highlighted the fact that safety records had been systematically faked, and that the plant had a management culture of complacency and incompetence. Pressure Groups have reported that BNFL dumps millions of litres of radioactive waste into the Irish sea every day.

The Sellafield Visitor Centre is where to head to find out more about Sellafield's history. As well as the visitor centre other facilities on-site include conference and meeting rooms and exhibition space.

Sellafield, Seascale, Cumbria CA20 1PG. Tel General Enq.019467 28333

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