Culcheth Laboratories was a British metallurgical and

nuclear research Nuclear physics is the field of physics that studies atomic nuclei and their constituents and interactions, in addition to the study of other forms of nuclear matter. Nuclear physics should not be confused with atomic physics, which studies the ...

institute that researched the structural design of

nuclear reactor A nuclear reactor is a device used to initiate and control a fission nuclear chain reaction or nuclear fusion reactions. Nuclear reactors are used at nuclear power plants for electricity generation and in nuclear marine propulsion. Heat from nu ...

s and

reactor pressure vessel A reactor pressure vessel (RPV) in a nuclear power plant is the pressure vessel containing the nuclear reactor coolant, core shroud, and the reactor core. Classification of nuclear power reactors Russian Soviet era RBMK reactors have each f ...

s in

Culcheth Culcheth is a village in the Borough of Warrington, ceremonial county of Cheshire and historic county of Lancashire, England, six miles (10 km) north-east of Warrington town centre; it is the principal settlement in Culcheth and Glazebury c ...

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's coun ...

, then in south

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a Historic counties of England, historic county, Ceremonial County, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significa ...

and now in the borough of

Warrington Warrington () is a town and unparished area in the Borough of Warrington, borough of the same name in the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England, on the banks of the River Mersey. It is east of Liverpool, and west of Manchester. The populati ...

History

The Reactor Materials Laboratory was established at Culcheth in 1950. The UKAEA's Safety and Reliability Directorate (SRD) 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 Metallurgy is a domain of materials science and engineering that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their inter-metallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are known as alloys. Metallurgy encompasses both the sci ...

. In the first ten years, it carried out research on materials for fast breeder reactors; it was the first time that

niobium Niobium is a chemical element with chemical symbol Nb (formerly columbium, Cb) and atomic number 41. It is a light grey, crystalline, and ductile transition metal. Pure niobium has a Mohs hardness rating similar to pure titanium, and it ha ...

had been part of a fast breeder reactor. The site investigated

fracture mechanics Fracture mechanics is the field of mechanics concerned with the study of the propagation of cracks in materials. It uses methods of analytical solid mechanics to calculate the driving force on a crack and those of experimental solid mechanics ...

nuclear reactor physics Nuclear reactor physics is the field of physics that studies and deals with the applied study and engineering applications of chain reaction to induce a controlled rate of fission in a nuclear reactor for the production of energy.van Dam, H., ...

and

hydraulics Hydraulics (from Greek: Υδραυλική) is a technology and applied science using engineering, chemistry, and other sciences involving the mechanical properties and use of liquids. At a very basic level, hydraulics is the liquid coun ...

. Work on irradiation of metals was also carried out with the

School of Materials, University of Manchester The Department of Materials, at the University of Manchester is an academic and research department specialising in Materials Science and Engineering and Fashion Business and Technology. It is the largest materials science and engineering departm ...

and the

Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy, University of Cambridge The Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy (DMSM) is a large research and teaching division of the University of Cambridge. Since 2013 it has been located in West Cambridge, having previously occupied several buildings on the New Museu ...

.''Effects of Radiation on Structural Metals'', 1967,

ASTM International ASTM International, formerly known as American Society for Testing and Materials, is an international standards organization that develops and publishes voluntary consensus technical standards for a wide range of materials, products, systems, a ...

, page 161

Structure

Culcheth is just over one mile north of junction 11 of the

M62 motorway The M62 is a west–east trans-Pennine motorway in Northern England, connecting Liverpool and Hull via Manchester, Bradford, Leeds and Wakefield; of the route is shared with the M60 orbital motorway around Manchester. The road is part of t ...

on the

A574 The A574 is a road in England, running through the borough of Warrington before terminating at the end of Butts Bridge in Leigh. The route covers a distance of approximately and links Warrington town centre with the outer suburbs of Birchwood a ...

. It was administrated by the Research and Development Branch of the

United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority The United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority is a UK government research organisation responsible for the development of fusion energy. It is an executive non-departmental public body of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy ...

(UKAEA).

References

External links

Local history
{{authority control 1950 establishments in England 1995 disestablishments in England Chemical research institutes Former nuclear research institutes History of Warrington Materials science institutes Metallurgical industry of the United Kingdom Metallurgical organizations Nuclear research institutes in the United Kingdom Research institutes established in 1950 Research institutes in Cheshire

History

Function

Structure

See also

References

External links