Windscale fire had little impact here

WITH reference to the letter from Adi Roche (October 11) concerning, among other things, the Windscale reactor fire in October 1957, I would like to respond as one of the authors of the recent study of the accident.

Although not perfect, substantial information on the release of radioactive material from the Windscale reactor (at Sellafield) and the subsequent travel of the plume was published soon after the accident.

One of the original scientific papers, presented to a UN conference in 1958, has been reproduced in Journal of Radiological Protection, with an accompanying editorial by me (www.iop.org/journals/JRP).