Strategy on the Historic Industrial Environment Report England's Atomic Age Desk top investigation and assessment
Author(s): Wayne D Cocroft
This report forms one of a series of Strategy on the Historic Industrial Environment Reports (SHIERs) produced for the English Heritage Industrial Archaeology Strategy Group. This set of reports aims to provide succinct national overviews of particular industries to inform English Heritage policy and conservation strategies. They will also be useful to a wide range of interested parties, such as local authority Historic Environment Record officers and others concerned with studying, managing and recording historic resources. The report has been compiled as a desk-top study, although informed by past visits by the author to a number of nuclear installations. It is primarily concerned with England’s nuclear facilities, but recognises that the nuclear industry is a national concern and passing reference is made to facilities in Scotland and Wales. It complements an earlier report on Electric Power Generation produced for English Heritage’s Monuments Protection Programme (Trueman 1994), which considered all forms of electricity generation excluding nuclear. Part One of the report gives a brief overview of England’s nuclear installations beginning with a short history of early atomic research in England, the post-war quest to develop nuclear weapons and the subsequent development of the civil atomic energy programmes. The technology of the industry is described and the broad functional relationships between the different locations are discussed. Brief descriptions are also given of the main reactor types and the principal types of buildings that will be found in nuclear power stations and their impact on the wider landscape. Part Two of the report provides advice on the formation of a national strategy for the future management and stewardship of the resource. This section also presents an analysis of the survival, protection and conservation of nuclear installations in England.
- Report Number:
- 3/2006
- Series:
- Research Department Reports
- Pages:
- 74
