Culcheth Laboratories

Culcheth Laboratories^[1]
Culcheth Laboratories
UKAEA Culcheth
	The metallurgical laboratory interior at Culcheth Laboratories in 1955 ; ;
	Location within Cheshire
Former names	Reactor Materials Laboratory
Alternative names	Culcheth Laboratory
General information
Type	Metallurgical Research Centre
Location	Wigshaw Lane, Culcheth and Glazebury, WA3 4NE
Coordinates	53°27′06″N 2°31′45″W / 53.4517°N 2.5292°W
Elevation	35 m (115 ft)
Completed	1950
Demolished	1995
Client	UKAEA
Owner	UKAEA

Culcheth Laboratories was a British metallurgical and nuclear research institute that researched the structural design of nuclear reactors and reactor pressure vessels in Culcheth, Cheshire, then in south Lancashire and now in the borough of Warrington.

History

The Reactor Materials Laboratory was established at Culcheth in 1950.^[2] The UKAEA's Safety and Reliability Directorate (SRD)^[3] stayed at Culcheth until 1995.

Function

It carried out work on reactors for the British civil and military (submarine fleet) nuclear energy programmes, investigating metallurgy. In the first ten years, it carried out research on materials for fast breeder reactors; it was the first time that niobium had been part of a fast breeder reactor.^[4] The site investigated fracture mechanics, nuclear reactor physics and hydraulics.

Work on irradiation of metals was also carried out with the School of Materials, University of Manchester and the Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy, University of Cambridge.^[5]

As of 1955, nuclear metallurgist Dr A. B. McIntosh, writing in the British journal Nature, noted that the laboratories hosted the only creep-testing facilities within the UKAEA, where staff conducted 'extensive tests that have been carried out in inert atmospheres, on a scale probably larger than any attempted elsewhere in Britain.' He points out the uniqueness of using precision mirror extensometers for routine creep tests, which he attributes to the laboratories having 'designed, built and successfully operated enclosed mirror extensometers' whereby the mirrors may be reset throughout the test without breaking a gas seal.^[6]

Structure

Culcheth is just over one mile north of junction 11 of the M62 motorway on the A574.

It was administered by the Research and Development Branch of the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA).

References

↑ New Scientist, 22 October 1959, page 778
↑ Institute of Physics, Nuclear Industry Group September 2016
↑ New Scientist, 10 April 1980, page 112
↑ Times, 11 May 1957, page 6
↑ Effects of Radiation on Structural Metals, 1967, ASTM International, page 161
↑ McINTOSH, A. B. (1 September 1955). "The Culcheth Laboratories of the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority Industrial Group". Nature. 176 (4480). Nature Publishing Group: 484–487. doi:10.1038/176484a0. ISSN 1476-4687.

External links

Local history

This article about a chemistry organization is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by adding missing information.

[1] New Scientist, 22 October 1959, page 778

[2] Institute of Physics, Nuclear Industry Group September 2016

[3] New Scientist, 10 April 1980, page 112

[4] Times, 11 May 1957, page 6

[5] Effects of Radiation on Structural Metals, 1967, ASTM International, page 161

[6] McINTOSH, A. B. (1 September 1955). "The Culcheth Laboratories of the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority Industrial Group". Nature. 176 (4480). Nature Publishing Group: 484–487. doi:10.1038/176484a0. ISSN 1476-4687.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

v t e Borough of Warrington, Cheshire
Principal settlements	Warrington
Civil parishes	Appleton Birchwood Burtonwood and Westbrook Croft Cuerdley Culcheth and Glazebury Grappenhall and Thelwall Great Sankey Hatton Lymm Penketh Poulton-with-Fearnhead Rixton-with-Glazebrook Stockton Heath Stretton Walton Winwick Woolston
Unparished areas	Warrington

This page was redesigned at the edge.

A page that knows where it met you.