“Banishing the atom pile bogy”: Exhibiting Britain's first nuclear reactor

Boyle, Alison

“Banishing the atom pile bogy”: Exhibiting Britain's first nuclear reactor

Resource type

Journal article

Creator (person)

Boyle, Alison

ORCID

Date published

February 2019

Abstract

This paper explores aspects of early British atomic exhibitions by tracing the movement of a display model of Britain's first atomic pile (nuclear reactor) GLEEP. Following the model's journey through a variety of exhibitions aimed at different audiences—commercial fairs, displays staged for communities near the site of the new Windscale reactor, the national museum, and a Commonwealth exhibition—we can see how exhibition organisers adopted a variety of banalizing and obscuring tactics to promote the benign atom while maintaining secrecy over the wider atomic programme.

Journal title

Centaurus

Volume

61

Issue

1-Feb

Publisher

Brepols Publishers NV

ISSN

0008-8994

eISSN

1600-0498

Official URL

https://doi.org/10.1111/1600-0498.12220

DOI

10.1111/1600-0498.12220