Sellafield

Sellafield ( in the past, now perhaps only or ) - darkometer rating : 6 - NOTE: this chapter is about the Sellafield site as such and in particular about its old/former visitor centre. Since this has been closed, a new exhibition about Sellafield has been incorporated into the Beacon Museum in Whitehaven . The old text below is thus outdated, but I decided to let it stand for comparison with the new exhibition, though technically this chapter should now be filed under lost places . ---------------------------------- The site of Great Britain 's most notorious nuclear plant! As such it's one of the very darkest tourist destinations in the country. And, unusually, you can (or at least could in the past) even visit it. > More background info > What there is to see > Location > Access and costs > Time required > Combinations with other dark destinations > Combinations with non-dark destinations > photos More background info: Not only did the world's first commercial nuclear power plant, Calder Hall, start supplying electricity to the population from here, it was also the centre for weapon's grade plutonium production for Britain's first atomic bomb and subsequently its Cold War nuclear arms arsenal. And the Windscale plant (an earlier name for a sub-complex at the site) was the first to have a major accident, in 1957 – also the worst such accident in Britain to date. Many other incidents followed during which radiation was released into the environment. The complex has also served as one of Europe's foremost nuclear reprocessing plants for many years. Today no nuclear power or weapons material is being produced here, and the site is being decommissioned. But that will take another 20 to 100 years or so to be completed (if ever it can be 100% completed, that is).