This decade used the 1950s pioneering research and development activities to make numerous reactor technologies work.

Large scale reactors brought commercially generated nuclear electricity to the UK. Spent fuel was stored and reprocessed at Sellafield so that uranium and plutonium could be used again as part of the nuclear fuel cycle. Different types of reactors started operating all over the UK. Due to the Windscale pile reactor fire in 1957, the industry was now being regulated by the Inspectorate of Nuclear Installations.

Berkeley Magnox reactor

Large scale reactors brought the benefit of commercially generated ‘nuclear’ electricity to UK society. The Magnox fleet of reactors at Berkeley, Bradwell, Dungeness A, Hinkley Point A, Oldbury, Sizewell A (all in England), Chapelcross, Hunterston A (both in Scotland), and Trawsfynydd (Wales), were all supplying electricity to the national grid by the end of the decade. Their spent fuel was stored and reprocessed at Sellafield, Cumbria, so that uranium and plutonium could be extracted and used again as part of the UK’s nuclear fuel cycle.

Windscale Advanced Gas-cooled Reactor (WAGR)

The prototype Windscale Advanced Gas-cooled Reactor (WAGR) reached full power using enriched uranium 235. Testing led to the development of the next generation of UK reactors, the AGR fleet, which were more efficient in producing power from uranium than Magnox reactors.