1.
Culham
–
Culham is a village and civil parish in a bend of the River Thames,1 mile south of Abingdon in Oxfordshire. The parish includes Culham Science Centre and the European School, Culham, the parish is bounded by the Thames to the north, west and south, and by present and former field boundaries to the east. It is low-lying and fairly flat, rising from the Thames floodplain in the south to an escarpment in the north up to 260 feet above sea level. The 2011 Census recorded its population as 453, the toponym comes from the Old English Culas hamm, referring to the villages position in a bend of the Thames. Culham is known to have existed by the reign of King Coenwulf of Mercia early in the 9th century, the west wing of Culham Manor was built in the 15th century as a medieval grange for Abingdon Abbey. It is half-timbered, with a ground floor and timber-framed first floor. In 1610 it was extended with a new front and east wing. The east wing was demolished but the 17th century north front survives. The house is a Grade II* Listed building, in 1685 a dovecote was built for the manor house. It too is now Grade II* listed, north of the house is a 17th-century sundial mounted on a 13th-century column. Several records suggest that Culham may have had a chapel since the 9th century, a parish church dedicated to Saint Paul was built in the 12th century. It was cruciform, having a chancel, nave and north and south transepts, there was a tower, and this was demolished and replaced in 1710. In 1852 the whole church except the 1710 tower was demolished and replaced with a new Gothic Revival building in 13th century style designed by Joseph Clarke. During the rebuilding, heraldic stained glass installed in the transept in 1638 was transferred to a window in the north aisle of the new church. The tower has a ring of six bells, but currently for technical reasons it is not possible to ring them, mears and Stainbank of the Whitechapel Bell Foundry cast or re-cast five of the bells in 1921, and cast the present tenor bell in 1926. St Pauls has also a Sanctus bell cast in 1774 by Edne Witts of Aldbourne, st Pauls parish is now part of the Benefice of Dorchester. Culham House is a mid-18th-century brick Georgian house, built to replace an earlier rectory and it was probably designed and built by John Phillips of London. In 1416–22 the Abingdon Guild of the Holy Cross built Culham Bridge over the narrow Back Water between the village and Abingdon to carry the road between Abingdon and Dorchester
2.
John Cockcroft
–
The Windscale fire of 10 October 1957 was the worst nuclear accident in Great Britains history, ranked in severity at level 5 out of a possible 7 on the International Nuclear Event Scale. The fire took place in Unit 1 of the two-pile Windscale facility on the northwest coast of England in Cumberland, the two graphite-moderated reactors, referred to at the time as piles, had been built as part of the British atomic bomb project. Windscale Pile No.1 was operational in October 1950 followed by Pile No.2 in June 1951, the fire burned for three days and there was a release of radioactive contamination that spread across the UK and Europe. Of particular concern at the time was the radioactive isotope iodine-131, which may lead to cancer of the thyroid, No one was evacuated from the surrounding area, but there was a worry that milk might be dangerously contaminated. Milk from about 500 km2 of nearby countryside was diluted and destroyed for about a month, a 2010 study of workers directly involved in the cleanup found no significant long term health effects from their involvement. After the Second World War, the British government embarked on a programme to build nuclear weapons, skipping the lower-performance uranium-based weapons in favour of those based on plutonium, a plutonium-breeding reactor system was designed to produce this material. The design was based on the graphite-moderated B Reactor built at the Hanford Site, the reactors were built in a short time near the village of Seascale, Cumberland. They were known as Windscale Pile 1 and Pile 2, housed in large buildings a few hundred feet apart. The core of the reactors consisted of a block of graphite with horizontal channels drilled through it for the fuel cartridges. Each cartridge consisted of a uranium rod about 30 cm long encased in a canister to protect it from the air, as uranium becomes highly reactive when hot. The cartridge was finned, allowing heat exchange with the environment to cool the fuel rods while they were in the reactor, rods were pushed in the front of the core, the charge face, with new rods being added at a calculated rate. The chain reaction in the core converted the uranium into a variety of isotopes, including some plutonium, as this plutonium was intended for weapons purposes, the burnup of the fuel would have been kept low to reduce production of the heavier plutonium isotopes. The design initially called for the core to be cooled like the B Reactor, there was considerable concern that such a system was subject to catastrophic failure in the event of a loss-of-coolant accident. This would cause the reactor to run out of control in seconds, at Hanford, this possibility was dealt with by constructing a 30 miles escape road to evacuate the staff were this to occur, abandoning the site. Lacking any location where a 30-mile area could be abandoned if an event were to occur in the UK. In place of water, they used air cooling driven by convection through a 400 feet tall chimney, the chimney was arranged so it pulled air through the channels in the core, cooling the fuel via fins on the cartridges. For additional cooling, huge fans were positioned in front of the core, in that event, the hot uranium could catch fire, with the fine uranium oxide dust being blown up the chimney to escape. When he raised the issue at a meeting and suggested that filters be added to the chimneys and these became known as Cockcrofts Folly by workers and engineers
3.
Nuclear weapons and the United Kingdom
–
The United Kingdom was the third country to test an independently developed nuclear weapon, in October 1952. It is one of the five nuclear-weapon states under the NPT, since the 1958 US–UK Mutual Defence Agreement, the United States and the United Kingdom have cooperated extensively on nuclear security matters. The special relationship between the two countries has involved the exchange of classified data and materials such as plutonium. The UK retains a stockpile of 215 thermonuclear warheads, of which 120 are operational as of 2016, since 1998, the Trident nuclear programme has been the only operational nuclear weapons system in British service. The delivery system consists of four Vanguard class submarines based at HMNB Clyde in Scotland, each submarine is armed with up to 16 Trident II missiles, each carrying warheads in up to eight MIRV re-entry vehicles. With at least one submarine always on patrol, the Vanguards perform a strategic role and are also believed to have a sub-strategic capability. The UK has not run a programme to develop an independent delivery system since the cancellation of the Blue Streak in 1960, instead it has purchased US delivery systems for UK use, fitting them with warheads designed and manufactured by the UKs Atomic Weapons Establishment and its predecessor. The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute has estimated the figure as about 170, at the same time, the UK government indicated that warheads required to provide a necessary processing margin and for technical surveillance purposes were not included in the fewer than 200 figure. These surveillance rounds are used to monitor deterioration in the many components of the warhead. The SIPRI figures correspond accurately with the announcements and are likely to be the most accurate. The Natural Resources Defense Council speculates that a figure of 200 is accurate to within a few tens, in 2008 the National Audit Office stated that the UK stockpile was of fewer than 160 operationally available nuclear warheads. Until the 1990s the UK deployed a variety of nuclear weapons around the world, such as V bombers in Singapore in the 1960s, aircraft on Cyprus. Until August 1998, the UK retained the WE.177 nuclear weapon manufactured in the mid-1960s to late 1970s, in air-dropped free-fall bomb and its withdrawal left the four Vanguard class submarines, which replaced the Polaris ones in the early 1990s, as Britains only nuclear weapons platform. It has been estimated by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists that the United Kingdom has built around 1,200 warheads since the first Hurricane device of 1952, at its peak, these numbered 327 for the British Army of the Rhine in Germany alone. The United Kingdom tested its first nuclear weapons in Australia during the 1950s, on the Montebello Islands, the first detonation, codenamed Operation Hurricane, occurred on 3 October 1952, in a shallow bay on Trimouille Island. Two further tests were held on the Montebello Islands during 1956, the second of these, codenamed G2, included the largest nuclear explosion in Australia, with a yield of 98 kilotons. Seven further nuclear tests were conducted on the Australian mainland between 1955 and 1963, within the Woomera Prohibited Area, at Emu Field and Maralinga in South Australia, the first British hydrogen bombs were tested during Operation Grapple at Malden Island and Christmas Island in the Central Pacific Ocean. The operation consisted of nine tests in the period 1957–1959, ultimately proving that the UK had developed thermonuclear weapons, different sources give the total number of test explosions that the UK has conducted as either 44 or 45
4.
Plutonium
–
Plutonium is a transuranic radioactive chemical element with symbol Pu and atomic number 94. It is a metal of silvery-gray appearance that tarnishes when exposed to air. The element normally exhibits six allotropes and four oxidation states and it reacts with carbon, halogens, nitrogen, silicon and hydrogen. When exposed to moist air, it forms oxides and hydrides that can expand the sample up to 70% in volume and it is radioactive and can accumulate in bones, which makes the handling of plutonium dangerous. Plutonium was first produced and isolated on December 14,1940 by Dr. Glenn T. Seaborg, Joseph W. Kennedy, Edwin M. McMillan, wahl by deuteron bombardment of uranium-238 in the 60-inch cyclotron at the University of California, Berkeley. They first synthesized neptunium-238 which subsequently beta-decayed to form a new element with atomic number 94. Uranium had been named after the planet Uranus and neptunium after the planet Neptune, and so element 94 was named after Pluto, wartime secrecy prevented them from announcing the discovery until 1948. Plutonium is the heaviest element to occur in nature as trace quantities arising similarly from the capture of natural uranium-238. Both plutonium-239 and plutonium-241 are fissile, meaning that they can sustain a chain reaction, leading to applications in nuclear weapons. Plutonium-240 exhibits a high rate of fission, raising the neutron flux of any sample containing it. The presence of plutonium-240 limits a plutonium samples usability for weapons or its quality as reactor fuel, plutonium-238 has a half-life of 88 years and emits alpha particles. It is a source in radioisotope thermoelectric generators, which are used to power some spacecraft. Plutonium isotopes are expensive and inconvenient to separate, so particular isotopes are usually manufactured in specialized reactors, producing plutonium in useful quantities for the first time was a major part of the Manhattan Project during World War II that developed the first atomic bombs. The Fat Man bombs used in the Trinity nuclear test in July 1945, Human radiation experiments studying plutonium were conducted without informed consent, and several criticality accidents, some lethal, occurred after the war. Disposal of plutonium waste from power plants and dismantled nuclear weapons built during the Cold War is a nuclear-proliferation. Other sources of plutonium in the environment are fallout from numerous above-ground nuclear tests, Plutonium, like most metals, has a bright silvery appearance at first, much like nickel, but it oxidizes very quickly to a dull gray, although yellow and olive green are also reported. At room temperature plutonium is in its α form and this, the most common structural form of the element, is about as hard and brittle as gray cast iron unless it is alloyed with other metals to make it soft and ductile. Unlike most metals, it is not a conductor of heat or electricity
5.
Thermonuclear weapon
–
A thermonuclear weapon is a nuclear weapon that uses the energy from a primary nuclear fission reaction to compress and ignite a secondary nuclear fusion reaction. The result is greatly increased power when compared to single-stage fission weapons. It is colloquially referred to as a bomb or an H-bomb because it employs the fusion of isotopes of hydrogen. The first full scale thermonuclear test was carried out by the United States in 1952, similar devices were developed by the Soviet Union, United Kingdom, China, and France. The radiation implosion mechanism is an engine that exploits the temperature difference between the secondary stages hot, surrounding radiation channel and its relatively cool interior. This temperature difference is maintained by a massive heat barrier called the pusher. If made of uranium, as is almost always the case, it can capture neutrons produced by the reaction and undergo fission itself. In many Teller–Ulam weapons, fission of the pusher dominates the explosion, detailed knowledge of fission and fusion weapons is classified to some degree in virtually every industrialized nation. Born secret is rarely invoked for cases of private speculation, in a small number of prior cases, the U. S. government has attempted to censor weapons information in the public press, with limited success. According to the New York Times, physicist Kenneth Ford defied government orders to remove classified information from his new book, Building the H Bomb, the state of public knowledge about the Teller–Ulam design has been mostly shaped from a few specific incidents outlined in a section below. At a bare minimum, this implies a primary section consists of an implosion-type fission bomb. The energy released by the primary compresses the secondary through a process called radiation implosion, at which point it is heated, surrounding the other components is a hohlraum or radiation case, a container that traps the first stage or primarys energy inside temporarily. The outside of this case, which is also normally the outside casing of the bomb, is the only direct visual evidence publicly available of any thermonuclear bomb components configuration. Numerous photographs of various thermonuclear bomb exteriors have been declassified, generally, a research program with the capacity to create a thermonuclear bomb has already mastered the ability to engineer boosted fission. The secondary is usually shown as a column of fusion fuel, around the column is first a pusher-tamper, a heavy layer of uranium-238 or lead that serves to help compress the fusion fuel. Inside this is the fuel itself, usually a form of lithium deuteride. This dry fuel, when bombarded by neutrons, produces tritium, inside the layer of fuel is the spark plug, a hollow column of fissile material that, when compressed, can itself undergo nuclear fission. The tertiary, if one is present, would be set below the secondary, separating the secondary from the primary is the interstage
6.
Sellafield
–
Sellafield is a nuclear fuel reprocessing and nuclear decommissioning site, close to the village of Seascale on the coast of the Irish Sea in Cumbria, England. The site is served by Sellafield railway station and it is the site of the worlds first commercial nuclear power station to generate electricity on an industrial scale. Sellafield was previously owned and operated by the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority and then, following the division of UKAEA in 1971, since 1 April 2005, it has been owned by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority and is now operated by Sellafield Ltd. In 2008, the NDA awarded Nuclear Management Partners the position of Parent Body Organisation of Sellafield Ltd. under their standard management model for NDA sites. This consortium, composed of US company URS, British company AMEC, on 13 January 2015, the NDA announced that NMP would lose the management contract for Sellafield Ltd. The new structure, which came into effect on 1 April 2016, activities at the Sellafield site primarily support decommissioning of historic plants, and reprocessing fuel from UK and international nuclear reactors. Decommissioning projects include the Windscale Piles, Calder Hall, historic reprocessing facilities, waste stores, Reprocessing plants include the THORP nuclear fuel reprocessing plant, the Magnox nuclear fuel reprocessing plant, and the Waste Vitrification Plant. The site contains several nuclear waste stores, with the Low Level Waste Repository 6 km away at Drigg, the UKs National Nuclear Laboratory also has its Central Laboratory on the Sellafield site. Sellafield was a rural community situated on the west coast of North-West England in the current county of Cumbria in the parish of St Bridget Beckermet between the rivers Calder and Ehen. It consisted of High Sellafield and Low Sellafield, which incorporated in the Sellafield Royal Ordnance Factory during its construction in the Second World War. The coming of the railway to west Cumberland in the century. ROF Sellafield was constructed by John Laing & Son in 1942 at Low Sellafield as a Second World War Royal Ordnance Factory, the nearby sister factory, ROF Drigg which produced TNT had been constructed in 1940,5 km to the south-east and adjacent to the village of Drigg. ROF Drigg and ROF Sellafield were built in isolated and remote coastal sites because of the hazardous nature of the process. They were both classed as Explosive ROF specialising in high-explosive TNT and propellant, and production ceased at both factories immediately following the defeat of Japan, the site was renamed Windscale to avoid confusion with the Springfields uranium processing factory near Preston. The building of the plants at Windscale Works was a huge construction project. Windscale Pile No.1 was operational in October 1950, Windscale was also the site of the prototype British advanced gas-cooled reactor. With the creation of the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority in 1954, the first of four Magnox reactors became operational in 1956 at Calder Hall, adjacent to Windscale and across the River Calder, and the site became Windscale and Calder Works. Following the break-up of the UKAEA into a division and a production division, British Nuclear Fuels Ltd in 1971
7.
Aldermaston
–
Aldermaston /ˈɔːldərmɑːstən/ is a mostly rural, dispersed settlement, civil parish and electoral ward in Berkshire, South-East England. In the United Kingdom Census 2011, the parish had a population of 1015, the village is in the south the mid-Kennet alluvial plain and bounds to the south Hampshire. It is roughly equidistant from Newbury, Basingstoke and Reading, centred 46 miles west-by-south-west of London, Aldermaston may have been inhabited as early as 1690 BCE, a number of postholes and remains of cereal grains have been found in the area. Written history of the village is traced back at least as far as the 9th century CE, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles show that the Ealdorman of Berkshire had his country estate in the village. The manor of Aldermaston was established by the early 11th century, when the village was given to the Achard family by Henry I, the village church was established in the 13th century, and some of the original Norman architecture remains in the buildings structure. The last resident Lord of the Manor, Charles Keyser, died in 1929. It was bought by the Praxis Group in 2013 for £4.7 million and is now subject to plans for restoration that include 227 new homes in order to finance the restoration of the manor house and grounds. The name Aldermaston is well known in connection with the UKs nuclear weapons programme, the Atomic Weapons Establishment, which develops, maintains, and disposes of the UKs nuclear weaponry is in the parish. Built on the site of the former RAF Aldermaston, the plant has been the destination of numerous Aldermaston Marches, until 2006, the village was home to the Aldermaston Pottery, which was established by Alan Caiger-Smith and Geoffrey Eastop in 1955. Evidence suggests that Aldermaston was inhabited in the 12th century CE, radiocarbon dating on postholes and pits in the area show activity from 1690 to 1390,1319 to 1214, and 977 to 899 BCE. Wheat and barley grains have been found in these excavations, tests show that most of the barley was dehulled, but that absence of such debris may mean that the cereal was brought in from other areas. Before the 1066 Norman conquest of England, the land and properties of Aldermaston formed part of the estates of Harold Godwinson, the Earl of Wessex, harolds assessment of Aldermaston valued the villages 15 hides at £20 a year. As with much of the seized by William the Conqueror after his arrival in England in 1066. His Domesday Survey of 1086 identified the existence of a mill, worth twenty shillings, during the rest of Williams reign, and that of his son William Rufus, Aldermaston was owned by the Crown. The history of the Lords of the Manor of Aldermaston Court can be traced to Achard DAldermaston, six families have had lordship of the Aldermaston estate. In the 11th century, Henry I gave Aldermaston to Robert Achard of Sparsholt, in the mid-12th century, the Achard family founded the church of St Mary the Virgin. In 1292, Edward I granted the right for the lord of the manor to hold a market in the village, another charter was granted by Henry IV, with evidence that the market existed until approximately 1900. The Achards also established a fair to observe the feast of St. Thomas the Martyr on 7 July
8.
Berkshire
–
Berkshire is a county in south east England, west of London. It was recognised as the Royal County of Berkshire because of the presence of Windsor Castle by the Queen in 1957, Berkshire is a county of historic origin and is a home county, a ceremonial county and a non-metropolitan county without a county council. Berkshire County Council was the main county governance from 1889 to 1998 except for the separately administered County Borough of Reading, in 1974, significant alterations were made to the countys administrative boundaries although the traditional boundaries of Berkshire were not changed. The towns of Abingdon, Didcot and Wantage were transferred to Oxfordshire, Slough was gained from Buckinghamshire, since 1998, Berkshire has been governed by the six unitary authorities of Bracknell Forest, Reading, Slough, West Berkshire, Windsor and Maidenhead and Wokingham. It borders the counties of Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Greater London, Surrey, according to Asser, it takes its name from a large forest of box trees that was called Bearroc. Berkshire has been the scene of notable battles through its history. Alfred the Greats campaign against the Danes included the Battles of Englefield, Ashdown, Newbury was the site of two English Civil War battles, the First Battle of Newbury in 1643 and the Second Battle of Newbury in 1644. The nearby Donnington Castle was reduced to a ruin in the aftermath of the second battle, another Battle of Reading took place on 9 December 1688. It was the only military action in England during the Glorious Revolution. Reading became the new county town in 1867, taking over from Abingdon, boundary alterations in the early part of the 20th century were minor, with Caversham from Oxfordshire becoming part of the Reading county borough, and cessions in the Oxford area. On 1 April 1974 Berkshires boundaries changed under the Local Government Act 1972, Berkshire took over administration of Slough and Eton and part of the former Eton Rural District from Buckinghamshire. 94 Signal Squadron still keep the Uffington White Horse in their insignia, the original Local Government White Paper would have transferred Henley-on-Thames from Oxfordshire to Berkshire, this proposal did not make it into the Bill as introduced. On 1 April 1998 Berkshire County Council was abolished under a recommendation of the Banham Commission, unlike similar reforms elsewhere at the same time, the non-metropolitan county was not abolished. Berkshire divides into two distinct sections with the boundary lying roughly on a north-south line through the centre of Reading. The eastern section of Berkshire lies largely to the south of the River Thames, in two places the county now includes land to the north of the river. Tributaries of the Thames, including the Loddon and Blackwater, increase the amount of low lying land in the area. Beyond the flood plains, the land rises gently to the county boundaries with Surrey, much of this area is still well wooded, especially around Bracknell and Windsor Great Park. In the west of the county and heading upstream, the Thames veers away to the north of the county boundary, leaving the county behind at the Goring Gap
9.
Chester
–
Chester is a walled city in Cheshire, England, on the River Dee, close to the border with Wales. With a population of 81,340 in 2014, it is the most populous settlement of Cheshire West and Chester, Chester was granted city status in 1541. Chester was founded as a castrum or Roman fort with the name Deva Victrix in the reign of the Emperor Vespasian in 79 AD, one of the main army camps in Roman Britain, Deva later became a major civilian settlement. Chester was one of the last cities in England to fall to the Normans, william the Conqueror ordered the construction of a castle, to dominate the town and the nearby Welsh border. Chester is one of the best preserved walled cities in Britain and it has a number of medieval buildings, but some of the black-and-white buildings within the city centre are Victorian restorations. Apart from a 100-metre section, the listed Grade I walls are almost complete, the Roman Legio II Adiutrix during the reign of the Emperor Vespasian founded Chester in AD79, as a castrum or Roman fort with the name Deva Victrix. The victrix part of the name was taken from the title of the Legio XX Valeria Victrix which was based at Deva, Central Chesters four main roads, Eastgate, Northgate, Watergate and Bridgegate, follow routes laid out at this time. A civilian settlement grew around the base, probably originating from trade with the fortress. The civilian amphitheatre, which was built in the 1st century and it is the largest known military amphitheatre in Britain, and is also a Scheduled Monument. The Minerva Shrine in the Roman quarry is the rock cut Roman shrine still in situ in Britain. The fortress was garrisoned by the legion until at least the late 4th century, after the Roman troops withdrew, the Romano-British established a number of petty kingdoms. Chester is thought to have part of Powys. Deverdoeu was a Welsh name for Chester as late as the 12th century, another, attested in the 9th century History of the Britons traditionally attributed to Nennius, is Cair Legion, this later developed into Caerlleon and then the modern Welsh Caer. King Arthur is said to have fought his ninth battle at the city of the legions and later St Augustine came to the city to try to unite the church, and held his synod with the Welsh Bishops. In 616, Æthelfrith of Northumbria defeated a Welsh army at the brutal and decisive Battle of Chester and her name is still remembered in St Werburghs Street which passes alongside the cathedral, and near the city walls. It was Alfreds daughter Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians, that built the new Saxon burh, a new Church dedicated to St Peter alone was founded in AD907 by the Lady Æthelfleda at what was to become the Cross. Taking the helm of a barge, he was rowed the short distance up the River Dee from Edgars Field to the great Minster Church of St John the Baptist by six tributary kings called reguli. In 1071 he made Hugh dAvranches, who built Chester Castle, from the 14th century to the 18th century the citys prominent position in North West England meant that it was commonly also known as Westchester
10.
Annan, Dumfries and Galloway
–
Annan is a town and former royal burgh in Dumfries and Galloway, south-west Scotland. Its public buildings include Annan Academy, of which the writer Thomas Carlyle was a pupil, the Town Hall was built in Victorian style in 1878, using the local sandstone. Annan also features a Historic Resources Centre, in Port Street, some of the windows remain blocked up to avoid paying the window tax. Each year on the first Saturday in July, Annan celebrates the Royal Charter, entertainment includes a procession, sports, field displays and massed pipe bands. Annan stands on the River Annan—from which it is named—nearly 2 miles from its mouth and it is 15 mi from Dumfries by rail, in the region of Dumfries and Galloway on the Solway Firth in the south of Scotland. Eastriggs is about 3 mi to the east and Gretna is about 8 mi to the east, Annan Castle formed the original home of the de Brus family, later known as the Bruces, lords of Annandale, which most famously produced Robert the Bruce. It was at Annan in December 1332 that Bruce supporters overwhelmed Balliols forces to bring about the end of the first invasion of Scotland in the Second War of Scottish Independence, the Balliols and the Douglases were also more or less closely associated with Annan. During his retreat from Derby, Bonnie Prince Charlie stayed in the High Street at the inn where LAuberge now stands, with the river embanked, Annan served as a maritime town whose shipyards built many clippers and other boats. A cairn on the jetty commemorates Robert Burns, who worked as an exciseman here in the 1790s, although the port is now mainly dry, a few stranded boats remain. Annan Academy has a history that goes back to the 17th century and its current campus on St Johns Road primarily dates to the 1960s. Annan previously formed a constituency of the Parliament of Scotland and the Convention of Estates, in 1871, the Dumfries Burghs had a population of 3172 and the royal burgh of Annan,4174, governed by a provost and 14 councillors. A Harbour Trust was established in 1897 to improve the port, by 1901, the population was 5805, living principally in red sandstone buildings. The train turntable was designed and developed in Annan, it can be today in the York Railway Museum. Just outside the town, the Chapelcross nuclear power station has now shut down and is being decommissioned, the four cooling towers were demolished in 2007. Nearby, John Maxwell, 4th Lord Herries, built Hoddom Castle, to the east of the town lies the settlement of Watchill and the similarly named Watchhall. Part of the A75, between Annan and Dumfries, is reported to be haunted, Annandale distillery has now officially re-opened in Annan, which last produced a Lowland Malt 90 years ago, although it is still in early stages. In the 19th century, Annan was connected to the Glasgow & Southwestern Railway, the Caledonian Railway, and it exported cured hams, cattle, sheep, and grain to England, it also produced cotton goods, ropes, ships, and salmon. By the First World War, it was also a center of bacon-curing, distilling, tanning, sandstone quarrying, Annan Bridge, a stone bridge of three arches, built between 1824 and 1827, carries road traffic over the River Annan
11.
Warrington
–
Warrington is a town and unitary authority area in Cheshire, England, on the banks of the River Mersey,20 miles east of Liverpool, and 20 miles west of Manchester. The population in 2015 was estimated at 207,700, more than double that of 1968 when it became a New Town, Warrington was founded by the Romans at an important crossing place on the River Mersey. A new settlement was established by the Saxons, by the Middle Ages, Warrington had emerged as a market town at the lowest bridging point of the river. A local tradition of textile and tool production dates from this time, historically in Lancashire, the expansion and urbanisation of Warrington coincided with the Industrial Revolution, particularly after the Mersey was made navigable in the 18th century. The West Coast Main Line runs north to south through the town, the Manchester Ship Canal cuts through the south of the borough. The M6, M56 and M62 motorways form a box around the town. Warrington has been a crossing point on the River Mersey since ancient times. Local archaeological evidence indicates there were Bronze Age settlements also. In medieval times Warringtons importance was as a town and bridging point of the River Mersey. The first reference to a bridge at Warrington is found in 1285, Warrington was a fulcrum in the English Civil War. The armies of Oliver Cromwell and the Earl of Derby both stayed near the old town centre, popular legend has it that Cromwell lodged near the building which survives on Church Street as the Cottage Restaurant. The Marquis of Granby public house bears a plaque stating that the Earl of Derby had his quarters near this site, dents in the walls of the parish church are rumoured to have been caused by the cannons from the time of the civil war. The expansion and urbanisation of Warrington largely coincided with the Industrial Revolution, as Britain became industrialised, Warrington embraced the Industrial Revolution becoming a manufacturing town and a centre of steel, textiles, brewing, tanning and chemical industries. The navigational properties of the River Mersey were improved, canals were built, when the age of steam came, Warrington naturally welcomed it, both as a means of transport and as a source of power for its mills. Many people, particularly Americans, remember Warrington best as the location of RAF Station Burtonwood Burtonwood RAF base, the RAF station continued in use by the USAAF and subsequently USAF as a staging post for men and material until its closure in 1993. Warrington was designated a new town in 1968 and consequently the town grew in size, heavy industry declined in the 1970s and 1980s but the growth of the new town led to a great increase in employment in light industry, distribution and technology. On 20 March 1993, the Provisional Irish Republican Army detonated two bombs in Warrington town centre, the blasts killed two children, three-year-old Jonathan Ball died instantly, and twelve-year-old Tim Parry, from the Great Sankey area died five days later in hospital. Around 56 other people were injured, four seriously and their deaths provoked widespread condemnation of the organisation responsible
12.
Fusion power
–
Fusion power is energy generated by nuclear fusion. Fusion reactions fuse two lighter nuclei to form a heavier nucleus. It is an area of plasma physics research that attempts to harness such reactions as a source of large scale sustainable energy. Fusion reactions are how stars transmute matter into energy, in most large scale commercial programs, heat from neutron scattering in a controlled reaction is used to operate a steam turbine that drives electric generators. Many fusion concepts are under investigation, the current leading designs are the tokamak and inertial confinement by laser. As of February 2017, these technologies were not currently viable, as they produce more energy than is required to initiate. Alternative approaches rely on other means of transfer, mostly that capture energy without relying on neutron capture. For nuclei lighter than iron-56, the reaction is exothermic, releasing energy, for nuclei heavier than iron-56, the reaction is endothermic, requiring an external source of energy. Hence, nuclei smaller than iron-56 are more likely to fuse while those heavier than iron-56 are more likely to break apart, the strong force acts only over short distances. The repulsive electrostatic force acts over distances, so kinetic energy is needed to overcome this Coulomb barrier before fusion can take place. Ways of doing this include speeding up atoms in an accelerator, or heating them to high temperatures. Once an atom is heated above its ionization energy, its electrons are stripped away, the result is a hot cloud of ions and the electrons formerly attached to them. This cloud is known as a plasma, because the charges are separated, plasmas are electrically conductive and magnetically controllable. Many fusion devices take advantage of this to control the particles as they are heated, a reactions cross section, denoted σ, is the measure of the probability that a fusion reaction will happen. This depends on the velocity of the two nuclei. Higher relative velocities increase the probability, cross sections for many fusion reactions were measured using particle beams. In a plasma, particle velocity can be characterized using a probability distribution, if the plasma is thermalized, the distribution looks like a bell curve, or maxwellian distribution. In this case, it is useful to use the average particle cross section over the velocity distribution, the Lawson Criterion shows how energy output varies with temperature, density, speed of collision and fuel
