Windscale

The Sellafield site is built on land that was formerly part of the Windscale nuclear site, which is named after a nearby village. Windscale was owned by the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority. Following the breakup of the UKAEA into research (UKAEA) and production (BNFL) arms, part of the site was transferred to BNFL. In 1981 the transferred part of the site was renamed "Sellafield". The remainder of the site remains in the hands of the UKAEA and is still called Windscale. Two air-cooled, graphite-moderated Windscale reactors constituted the first British weapons grade plutonium 239 production facility, built for the British nuclear weapons program in the late 40s and the 50s.