Culcheth Laboratories

{{Short description|British metallurgical and nuclear research institute}}

{{Infobox building

| name = Culcheth Laboratories[https://books.google.com/books?id=9pfZvrlTIYIC&pg=PA778 New Scientist, 22 October 1959, page 778]

| native_name = UKAEA Culcheth

| former_names = Reactor Materials Laboratory

| alternate_names = Culcheth Laboratory

| image =

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| map_type = United Kingdom Cheshire

| altitude = {{convert|35|m|ft|0|abbr=on}}

| building_type = Metallurgical Research Centre

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| location = former South Lancashire

| address = Wigshaw Lane, Culcheth and Glazebury, WA3 4NE

| client = UKAEA

| owner = UKAEA

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| coordinates = {{coord|53.4517|-2.5292|display=inline}}

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| completion_date = 1950

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| demolition_date = 1995

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Culcheth Laboratories was a British metallurgical and nuclear research institute that researched the structural design of nuclear reactors and reactor pressure vessels in Culcheth, Cheshire, then in south Lancashire and now in the borough of Warrington.

History

The Reactor Materials Laboratory was established at Culcheth in 1950.[https://www.iop.org/activity/groups/subject/nig/newsletter/file_68900.pdf Institute of Physics, Nuclear Industry Group September 2016] The UKAEA's Safety and Reliability Directorate (SRD)[https://books.google.com/books?id=mXUAr-44IZIC&pg=PA112 New Scientist, 10 April 1980, page 112] stayed at Culcheth until 1995.

Function

It carried out work on reactors for the British civil and military (submarine fleet) nuclear energy programmes, investigating metallurgy. In the first ten years, it carried out research on materials for fast breeder reactors; it was the first time that niobium had been part of a fast breeder reactor.Times, 11 May 1957, page 6 The site investigated fracture mechanics, nuclear reactor physics and hydraulics.

Work on irradiation of metals was also carried out with the School of Materials, University of Manchester and the Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy, University of Cambridge.Effects of Radiation on Structural Metals, 1967, ASTM International, page 161