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40-571: The electronics division of the Atomic Energy Research Establishment at Harwell, UK built the Harwell Dekatron Computer in 1951, which was an automatic calculator where the decimal arithmetic and memory were electronic, although other functions were performed by relays . By 1953, it was evident that this did not meet AERE 's computing needs, and AERE director Sir John Cockcroft encouraged them to design and build

80-576: A Public / Private 50:50 Joint Venture partnership to take forward the management and redevelopment of the campus which has been re-branded as Harwell Oxford. In February 2009, part of the campus, the remaining nuclear licensed site, passed to the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority and is being decommissioned by Research Sites Restoration Limited (RSRL, from 2015 part of Magnox Ltd ), on their behalf. Harwell Science and Innovation Campus The Harwell Science and Innovation Campus

120-612: A computer using transistors throughout. E. H. Cooke-Yarborough based the design around a 64-kilobyte (65,536 bytes) magnetic drum memory store with multiple moving heads that had been designed at the National Physical Laboratory, UK . By 1953 his team had transistor circuits operating to read and write on a smaller magnetic drum from the Royal Radar Establishment . The machine used a low clock speed of only 58 kHz to avoid having to use any valves to generate

160-404: A few months to simulate the radiation dose that it would receive over the lifetime of a power reactor. Both reactors were also used for neutron scattering crystallography. They took over commercial isotope production from BEPO after that was shut down. DIDO and PLUTO themselves were shut down in 1990 and the fuel, moderator and some ancillary buildings removed. The GLEEP reactor and the hangar it

200-464: Is a 700-acre science and technology campus in Oxfordshire , England. Over 6,000 people work there in over 240 public and private sector organisations, working across sectors including Space, Clean Energy, Life Sciences and Quantum Computing. The site is 2 miles (3 km) outside Didcot , about 15 miles (24 km) south of Oxford and roughly 6 miles (10 km) east of Wantage . A large part of

240-799: Is operated by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), and its facilities include the ISIS neutron source . In 2004, RAL Space engineered the Ptolemy instrument for the Philae lander on the European Space Agency's (ESA) Rosetta expedition Between 2003 and 2007 the Diamond synchrotron was constructed on the RAL site, the UK's largest scientific investment for 30 years. As

280-579: The IBM 608 transistor calculator, which they claim was "the first all-solid-state computing machine commercially marketed" and "the first completely transistorized computer available for commercial installation", and which may have been demonstrated in October 1954, before the CADET. By 1956, Brian Flowers , head of the theoretical physics division at AERE, was convinced that the CADET provided insufficient computing power for

320-704: The United Kingdom from 1946 to the 1990s. It was created, owned and funded by the British Government. A number of early research reactors were built here starting with GLEEP in 1947 to provide the underlying science and technology behind the design and building of Britain's nuclear reactors such as the Windscale Piles and Calder Hall nuclear power station. To support this an extensive array of research and design laboratories were built to enable research into all aspects of nuclear reactor and fuel design, and

360-567: The 1970s the slowdown of the British nuclear energy program resulted in a greatly reduced demand for the kind of work being done by the UKAEA. Pressures on government spending also reduced the funding available. Reluctant to merely disband a quality scientific research organisation, UKAEA was required to divert its research effort to the solving of scientific problems for industry by providing paid consultancy or services. For example, an Operations Research Group

400-592: The 1980s and the hostels were demolished or adapted for other uses. The 'Prefab' estates lasted until the early 1990s when the residents were transferred to local authority housing. The RAF prewar NCO married quarter housing at Harwell together other UKAEA housing in Abingdon, Grove, Wantage and Newbury totaling 129 houses were sold in their entirety to the Welbeck Estate Group in 1995 and following extensive refurbishment were sold to local buyers. The remote nature of

440-860: The Atomic Energy Research Establishment was formed, coming under the Ministry of Supply . The scientists mostly took over both accommodations and work buildings from the departing RAF . The early laboratory had several specialist divisions: Chemistry (initially headed by Egon Bretscher , later by Robert Spence , General Physics (H.W.B. Skinner) , Nuclear Physics (initially headed by Otto Frisch , later E. Bretscher), Reactor Physics (John Dunworth), Theoretical Physics ( Klaus Fuchs , later Brian Flowers and Walter Marshall ), Isotopes (Henry Seligmann), Engineering (Harold Tongue, later Robert Jackson), Chemical Engineering (A.S. White), and Metallurgy (Bruce Chalmers, later Monty Finniston , FRS). Finniston

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480-646: The Campus was formerly the Atomic Energy Research Establishment, which was created after the Second World War on the site of RAF Harwell . It was the main centre for atomic energy research and development in the United Kingdom from the 1940s to the 1990s, latterly being amalgamated into the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority. A number of test nuclear reactors were sited on the Campus over

520-617: The Harwell IBC also has numerous amenities such as a bank, post office, hairdresser, sports facilities including a cricket pitch, and its own bus station. In March 2006 the government announced plans to transform the Harwell International Business Centre into the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus. In August 2006 the government announced an investment of £26.4 million to construct new research facilities on

560-462: The Harwell site required AERE workers to be transported by shuttle bus. By 1956, nine contractors to AERE operated a total of 47 mostly second-hand buses and coaches on 41 staff shuttle services, which operated 24 hours a day to shuttle workers as far as Oxford, Newbury, Reading and Swindon to the Harwell site. These buses were initially painted in utilitarian Ministry of Supply grey livery, however by

600-722: The aircraft hangars being ideal to house the large atomic piles that would need to be built. Although Cambridge University had the better nuclear physics facility (the Cavendish Laboratory ), the RAF did not want to abandon any of its eastern airfields because of its potential involvement in the Cold War , therefore Harwell was chosen when the RAF made the airfield available. RAF Harwell was sixteen miles south of Oxford near Didcot and Harwell (at this time in Berkshire), and on 1 January 1946

640-762: The campus and the creation of a joint venture partnership. The European Space Agency moved into Harwell Science and Innovation Campus in May 2013. It was the first ESA base in the UK. ESA then constructed and opened the Roy Gibson Building (named after ESA's first Director General) in July 2015. The ESA facility, named European Centre for Space Applications and Telecommunications or ECSAT focuses upon three key areas: combining data and images from space to create new applications for everyday life; observations and research on climate change (the facility hosts ESA's Climate Office); and

680-491: The clock waveforms. This slow speed was partially offset by the ability to add together eight numbers concurrently. The resulting machine was called CADET (Transistor Electronic Digital Automatic Computer – backward). It first ran a simple test program in February 1955. CADET used 324 point-contact transistors provided by the UK company Standard Telephones and Cables , which were the only ones available in sufficient quantity when

720-525: The development of pilot plants for fuel reprocessing. The site became a major employer in the Oxford area. In the 1990s demand for government-led research had significantly decreased and the site was subsequently gradually diversified to allow private investment, and was known from 2006 as the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus . In 1945 John Cockcroft was asked to set up a research laboratory to further

760-469: The former UKAEA site was being decommissioned, a new role became necessary to maintain levels of employment in the area, building on the site's reputation for pioneering research, and ensuring that Harwell remained one of the UK's major centres for science and technology. Therefore, in 1996, it was relaunched as a business park . One of the businesses on-site is the UKAEA spin-off company AEA Technology . As well as attracting numerous other hi-tech businesses,

800-522: The immediate post-war period in Britain. Two estates of 'Prefabs' were built to the north and south of the site perimeter, along with a road system and parade of shops. In later years, conventional housing was provided on estates built in Abingdon , Grove (near Wantage ) and Newbury for employees. A modern hostel (Rush Common House) was built in Abingdon. The houses were later sold (mainly to their occupants) in

840-400: The main employers in the post-war period. It also led to an influx of labour from outside the area, putting pressure on already scarce housing stocks. In response to the problem, hostels and temporary housing were established around the site. The hostels were named Icknield Way House ('B' mess, the RAF sergeants' mess), Portway House ('C' Mess, the RAF airmans' mess) and Ridgeway House ('A' Mess,

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880-608: The mid-1950s, the AERE fleet began adopting an azure blue and grey livery with 'AERE' signwriting. Such was the interest in nuclear power and the priority devoted to it in those days that the first reactor, GLEEP , was operating by 15 August 1947. GLEEP (Graphite Low Energy Experimental Pile) was a low-power (3   kilowatt ) graphite-moderated air-cooled reactor. The first reactor in Western Europe, it operated until 1990. A successor to GLEEP, called BEPO (British Experimental Pile 0)

920-455: The nearby establishments to heat offices. This was the first use of nuclear district heating in the UK. BEPO was shut down in 1968. LIDO was an enriched uranium thermal swimming pool reactor which operated from 1956 to 1972 and was mainly used for shielding and nuclear physics experiments. It was fully dismantled and returned to a green field site in 1995. In the same building as LIDO, DAPHNE (Dido And Pluto Handmaiden for Nuclear Experiments)

960-451: The needs of his numerical analysts and ordered a Ferranti Mercury computer. In 1958, Mercury number 4 became operational at AERE to accompany the CADET for another two years before the CADET was retired after four years of operation. Atomic Energy Research Establishment The Atomic Energy Research Establishment ( AERE ), also known as Harwell Laboratory , was the main centre for atomic energy research and development in

1000-545: The officers' mess) provided either single or double room accommodation for staff and were adopted from existing RAF structures on the site. The class distinction was maintained by the UKAEA. A-Mess housed visiting scientists, B-Mess scientific support staff and some post-graduate scientists, and C-Mess industrial support staff. The temporary housing stock consisted of several hundred ' Prefabs ', single storey structures manufactured in parts for quick erection, which were designed originally to help alleviate chronic housing shortages in

1040-523: The project started; 76 junction transistors were used for the first stage amplifiers for data read from the drum, since point-contact transistors were too noisy. CADET was built from a few standardized designs of circuit boards which never got mounted into the planned desktop unit, so it was left in its breadboard form. From August 1956 CADET was offering a regular computing service, during which it often executed continuous computing runs of 80 hours or more. Cooke-Yarborough described CADET as being "probably

1080-570: The second fully transistorised computer in the world to put to use", second to an unnamed IBM machine. Both the Manchester University Transistor Computer and the Bell Laboratories TRADIC were demonstrated incorporating transistors before CADET was operational, although both required some thermionic valves to supply their faster clock power, so they were not fully transistorised. In April 1955 IBM announced

1120-462: The site include: Space Cluster Organisations Life Sciences and HealthTech Organisations Energy Organisations The National Quantum Computing Centre will also be built at Harwell Campus. The campus is owned by the UKAEA, the Science and Technology Facilities Council and Public Health England. It is managed by the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus joint venture partnership. The northern part of

1160-506: The site was formerly the main research establishment of the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority , but it has seen a transition to its new role as a science and business park as the nuclear facilities have been decommissioned. Over 6,000 people work on the campus in some 240 organisations representing a multidisciplinary range of advanced scientific and technological disciplines. Major companies and organisations on

1200-402: The use of nuclear fission for both military purposes and generating energy. The criteria for selection involved finding somewhere remote with a good water supply, but within reach of good transport links and a university with a nuclear physics laboratory. This more or less limited the choice to the areas around Oxford or Cambridge . It had been decided that an RAF airfield would be chosen,

1240-761: The world's first experimental ‘fast’ reactor, ZEPHYR, was built in 1954. In 1957 the Rutherford High Energy Laboratory (now the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, RAL) was established on a site immediately south of the AERE. This was followed in 1961 by the Atlas Computer Laboratory , absorbed into the Rutherford in 1974. The southern site, including the RAL, became known as the Chilton/Harwell Science Campus. RAL

Harwell CADET - Misplaced Pages Continue

1280-449: The years. The nuclear facilities are in the hands of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority . As parts of the site are decommissioned, they are delicensed and dedesignated and no longer secured hence the area "inside the fence" is gradually shrinking. It is planned that the entire site will be decommissioned by 2025. Achievements on the campus at this time included the creation of the world's first transistorised computer, CADET, in 1953 and

1320-464: Was believed that no further progress could be made with the kind of design that ZETA represented (see Timeline of nuclear fusion ). In 1954 AERE was incorporated into the newly formed United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA). Harwell and other laboratories were to assume responsibility for atomic energy research and development. It was part of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI). During

1360-435: Was constructed based on the experience with GLEEP, and commenced operation in 1948. At 6   MW , BEPO was much more powerful than GLEEP. The engineers at Harwell eventually decided that this small reactor should be put to some use, so the air that flowed over it was directed through an underground trench, where there were some pipes filled with water that connected to a secondary group of water-filled pipes that were used by

1400-468: Was constructed to test equipment used in experiments on the two larger reactors. A pair of larger 26   MW reactors, DIDO and PLUTO , which used enriched uranium with a heavy water moderator came online in 1956 and 1957 respectively. These reactors were used primarily for testing the behaviour of different materials under intense neutron irradiation to help decide what materials to build reactor components out of. A sample could be irradiated for

1440-491: Was divided in the early 1990s. UKAEA retained ownership of all land and infrastructure and of all nuclear facilities, and of businesses directly related to nuclear power. The remainder was privatised as AEA Technology and floated on the London Stock Exchange . Harwell Laboratory contained elements of both organisations, though the land and infrastructure was owned by UKAEA. The name Atomic Energy Research Establishment

1480-558: Was dropped at the same time, and the site became known as the Harwell International Business Centre . The site incorporates the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory which is home to the Science and Technology Facilities Council (including the ISIS neutron source and Diamond Light Source ). In 2006, the name Harwell Science and Innovation Campus was introduced and management of the campus was passed to

1520-490: Was later to become chairman of the British Steel Corporation. Directors after Cockcroft included Basil Schonland , Sir Arthur Vick and Walter Marshall . The decision to site AERE at Harwell had huge implications for a rural area which had depended mainly on agriculture for employment before World War II. The site (which quickly became known colloquially amongst the local population as 'The Atomic') became one of

1560-469: Was set up at Harwell, and developed shipping fleet scheduling software that was used to provide a service to British and overseas shipping companies and oil reservoir simulation software to help in the development of the UK's North Sea oil interests. UKAEA was ordered to operate on a Trading Fund basis, i.e. to account for itself financially as though it was a private corporation, while remaining fully government owned. After several years of transition, UKAEA

1600-502: Was situated in were decommissioned 2005. The current plans are to decommission the BEPO, DIDO and PLUTO reactors by 2020. One of the most significant experiments to occur at AERE was the ZETA fusion power experiment. An early attempt to build a large-scale nuclear fusion reactor, the project was started in 1954, and the first successes were achieved in 1957. In 1968 the project was shut down, as it

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