{{short description|UK experimental HTR, operated from 1965 to 1976}} {{Infobox nuclear reactor | name = Windscale Advanced Gas Cooled Reactor | image = Looking towards Building B30 (cropped).jpg | caption = WAGR containment vessel, on the left, seen in 2014. The chimney on the right is a part of the Windscale Piles | location = Sellafield, England | concept = Advanced gas-cooled reactor | coordinates = {{coord|54.4205|-3.4975|display=inline,title}} | design = United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority | operation = 1962 to 1983 | status = Decommissioning | fuel = Low-enriched uranium | fuel_state = Uranium dioxide (pellets) | spectrum = THERMAL | control = Control rods | coolant = Carbon dioxide | outlet_temperature = {{convert|500|C}}<ref name=bnes/> | moderator = Nuclear graphite | thermal = 100 MW<sub>t</sub> | electric = 30 MW<sub>e</sub> | use = Fuel element testbed }} The Windscale Advanced Gas Cooled Reactor '''(WAGR)''' was a nuclear power plant constructed on the Sellafield nuclear site in Cumbria, England.
==History== Commissioned in 1962, the structure was the prototype for the advanced gas-cooled reactor,<ref>{{cite web |title=Project WAGR |url=http://www.sellafieldsites.com/what-we-do/featured-projects/wagr |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111001192111/http://www.sellafieldsites.com/what-we-do/featured-projects/wagr |archive-date=1 October 2011 }}</ref> the United Kingdom's second generation of commercial nuclear reactors.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.amacad.org/pdfs/nuclearreactors.pdf |title=Nuclear Reactors: Generation to Generation |author=Stephen M. Goldberg and Robert Rosner |date=2011 |publisher=American Academy of Arts and Sciences |access-date=1 September 2018}}</ref>
The station had a rated thermal output of approximately 100{{nbsp}}MW and 30{{nbsp}}MWe. The WAGR spherical containment, known colloquially as the "golfball", is one of the iconic buildings on the site. Construction was carried out by Mitchell Construction.<ref>Indictment: Power & Politics in the Construction Industry, David Morrell, Faber & Faber, 1987, {{ISBN|978-0-571-14985-8}}</ref> This reactor was shut down in 1983,<ref name="The Engineer WAGR 1963">{{cite web |last1=Nathan |first1=Stuart |title=March 1963: The Windscale AGR |url=https://www.theengineer.co.uk/content/archive/march-1963-the-windscale-agr |website=The Engineer |access-date=24 June 2025 |language=en |date=6 March 2013}}</ref> and was subsequently the subject of a pilot project to demonstrate techniques for safely decommissioning a nuclear reactor.<ref name="The Engineer WAGR decom">{{cite news |author1=<!-- not stated --> |title=Sellafield reactor reaches end of decommissioning project |url=https://www.theengineer.co.uk/content/news/sellafield-reactor-reaches-end-of-decommissioning-project |access-date=24 June 2025 |work=The Engineer |date=16 June 2011 |language=en}}</ref>
==Role== While Windscale was described as a 'prototype advanced gas-cooled reactor' by the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority,<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.dataweb.clrc.ac.uk/ChiltonCatalog/UKAEA-annual-reports/19650000-UkaeaAnnReptIll-11.pdf |title=AGR: The CEGB Assesment |work=Atom |date=31 March 1965 |quote=Shortly before the end of the year under review, the Authority's prototype advanced gas-cooled reactor at Windscale completed two years' operation.}}</ref> the authors of a British Nuclear Energy Society conference paper state that the reactor was not intended to be a prototype, but rather a test bed for the fuel element of the APG program.<ref name=bnes>{{cite conference |url=https://www.emerald.com/books/edited-volume/12711/chapter/83035395/158-Status-of-gas-cooled-reactors-in-the-UK |title=Status of gas-cooled reactors in the UK |book-title=Gas-cooled reactors today: Performance and safety technology Status of gas-cooled reactors |date=1982 |quote=The Windscale AGR was not intended to be a prototype. The main purpose of the Windscale reactor was to test the fuel elements}}</ref> The Windscale reactor differed from the commercial reactors in the following aspects:<ref name=bnes/> * reactor scale was much smaller (30 MWe against 600 MWe) * the reactor pressure vessel was of stainless steel, unlike the prestressed concrete vessels used in the commercial reactors * the gas temperature, at {{convert|500|C}}, was lower than the commercial design, at {{convert|640|C}} * the reactor fuel element used 18-pin clusters, unlike the 36-pin clusters used in the commercial reactors The paper authors state that the Windscale and commercial reactor designs were in fact different in almost every respect.
==References== {{reflist}}
Category:Nuclear power stations in England Category:Power stations in North West England