Harwell Site, Didcot, Oxfordshire

A chemical landmark was awarded to the Harwell Site near Didcot to mark over fifty years of chemical research on the Harwell site and to commemorate the 60th anniversary of B220 laboratory.  Dr John Wilkins, formerly Head of Chemistry Division and until his retirement in 2008 was the Manager of the Harwell Site, provided the following information for the nomination of the site for the award:

"The Atomic Research Establishment (AERE) was set up at Harwell in January 1946 to carry out the research needed to establish civil nuclear power in the UK.  The new industry presented a wide range of chemical problems and Harwell led the UK research programme. It was recognised that if nuclear power was to be accepted, a good appreciation of the underlying science was required.  Under Sir John Cockercroft, the establishment took on this role with enthusiasm, attracting many young and talented scientists.  By the late 1950s the site employed over a thousand professional scientists and engineers with a significant proportion of them being chemists.  They established an international reputation for Harwell and provided the science for the nuclear industry.  In recent years nuclear power has provided about 20% of the nation's electricity.

The emphasis was firstly on "thermal" reactors, as widely deployed today, but later the development of the fast reactor became important.  The reactors required high purity fuels, at first uranium metal, then uranium dioxide, and finally mixed uranium/plutonium oxide and carbide.  The fuel had to be clad in materials that were compatible with the reactor coolant and remained intact under extreme conditions in reactors.  An understanding of the chemistry of the irradiated fuels was developed.  This provided data for the manufacture of fuel and for reactor designers, which was essential for safe operation of reactors. Predictions could also be made of the release of radioactivity under accident conditions.  The chemistry of carbon dioxide coolant and its interaction with the graphite moderator were studied to allow the conditions for optimum reactor operations to be identified.  The intense radiation field in reactors necessitated the development of an understanding of radiation chemistry as part of the underlying science programme.

Reprocessing of irradiated fuel was developed from tracer studies for application at an industrial scale at what was then Windscale.  This involved the study of actinide elements and fission products in solvent extraction and other processes to ensure that high purity plutonium and uranium could be recovered.  Elements such as protactinium, neptunium, plutonium and americium, had not previously been available and it was important to establish their chemistry.  Harwell made major contributions to the chemistry of these elements ensuring that the information required by reactor and fuel processing plant designers was available.   A notable first for Harwell was the production of the first plutonium metal in Western Europe. This was separated from fuel irradiated in the BEPO reactor.

Treatment of radioactive wastes, gaseous, liquid and solid, were a feature of the research at Harwell. Novel chemical processes for the treatment of effluents were investigated to protect the environment.  Later, techniques for immobilisation of radioactive wastes were developed together with an understanding of the chemistry of the radionuclides under repository conditions.  Sensitive analytical techniques were developed for the range of new materials - from intensely radioactive fuels through to very low environmental levels of radionuclides.  Harwell was also at the forefront of application of nuclear techniques for analysis and structural studies.  For example, nuclear microprobe methods were developed.  The reactors were used to develop neutron diffraction and scattering for structural examination and neutron activation analysis.

Today, the nuclear industry has matured and does not require a very large research establishment along the lines of AERE in the 1940s and 1950s to support its work.  From the mid 1960s onwards AERE started to diversify into a wide range of industrial research and 'sister' establishments such as the Rutherford Laboratory were established adjacent to the AERE site.  This has resulted in the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus becoming one of the major science centres in Europe and the home to the Diamond and ISIS world-class facilities.  The achievements from over 50 years of chemistry research makes the Harwell site an excellent candidate for being awarded UK Chemical Landmark status by the RSC".

RSC President, Professor Dave Garner made the award to Alan Neal. RSRL (Research Sites Restoration Limited) Managing Director in front of an audience of current and former employees on the site.  A tour of the B220 Laboratory took place after the ceremony.