Thomas Tuohy
CBE
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations,
and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...
(7 November 1917 – 12 March 2008) was deputy to the general manager at the
Windscale nuclear facility when a
major fire erupted on 10 October 1957. He was the leading participant in efforts to put out the fire which was emitting
radioactive contamination into the air, and so played a key role in minimising Britain's worst
nuclear disaster.
Early life and career
Tuohy was born in
Wallsend
Wallsend is a town in North Tyneside, England, at the eastern end of Hadrian's Wall. It has a population of 43,842 and lies east of Newcastle upon Tyne.
History Roman Wallsend
In Roman times, this was the site of the fort of Segedunum. This fo ...
and educated at
St Cuthbert's High School
St Cuthbert's Catholic High School is a boys-only Roman Catholic secondary school with academy status located on Gretna Road in the Benwell Hill area of Newcastle upon Tyne, England.
Admissions
St Cuthbert's is a seven-form entry school. The sc ...
,
Newcastle-upon-Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne ( RP: , ), or simply Newcastle, is a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. The city is located on the River Tyne's northern bank and forms the largest part of the Tyneside built-up area. Newcastle is als ...
, and
Reading University.
During
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
he worked for the
Royal Ordnance as a chemist, and in 1946 joined the nuclear industry, becoming deputy general manager of Windscale in 1957.
Windscale fire
On 10 October 1957 his boss phoned him at home where he was nursing a family sick with flu, saying: "Come at once. Pile number one is on fire." Leaving his wife and two children, he told them to stay indoors and keep all the windows closed.
At the factory he discarded his radiation recording badge, so that no one could tell him that he had exceeded permitted radiation dose limits, and made repeated inspections directly into the 80 ft pile. Over the next few hours he was instrumental in directing the efforts which eventually brought the blaze under control.
[
Despite his excessive exposure to radiation that day, Tuohy lived to the age of 90.]nuclear weapons
A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear bomb), producing a nuclear explosion. Both bomb ...
. The documentary features interviews with key scientists and plant operators, including Tom Tuohy. The documentary suggests that the fire – the first fire in any nuclear facility – was caused by the relaxation of safety measures, as a result of pressure from the British government to quickly produce fissile material
In nuclear engineering, fissile material is material capable of sustaining a nuclear fission chain reaction. By definition, fissile material can sustain a chain reaction with neutrons of thermal energy. The predominant neutron energy may be ty ...
s for nuclear weapons.
See also
Windscale fire
The Windscale fire of 10 October 1957 was the worst nuclear accident in the United Kingdom's history, and one of the worst in the world, ranked in severity at level 5 out of a possible 7 on the International Nuclear Event Scale. The fire was in ...
References
External links
Windscale: Britain's Biggest Nuclear Disaster (2007) (TV)
People associated with nuclear power
1917 births
2008 deaths
People from Wallsend
People educated at St. Cuthbert's School
Alumni of the University of Reading
Commanders of the Order of the British Empire
{{UK-chemist-stub