Thomas Tuohy

Thomas Tuohy CBE (7 November 1917 – 12 March 2008) was deputy to the general manager at the Windscale nuclear facility when a major fire erupted on 10 October 1957. He was the leading participant in efforts to put out the fire which was emitting radioactive contamination into the air, and so played a key role in minimising Britain's worst nuclear disaster.

Early life and career

Tuohy was born in Wallsend and educated at St Cuthbert's Grammar School in Newcastle upon Tyne, and the University of Reading.

During World War II he worked for the Royal Ordnance as a chemist, and in 1946 joined the nuclear industry, becoming deputy general manager of Windscale in 1957. He was appointed CBE in the 1969 New Years honours list.

In 1990, the first of three BBC documentaries on the incident was shown. Titled Our Reactor Is on Fire, the documentary featured interviews with key plant workers, including Tom Tuohy. In 2007 the BBC aired another documentary about the accident titled "Windscale: Britain’s Biggest Nuclear Disaster", which investigates the history of the first British nuclear facility and its role in the development of nuclear weapons. The documentary features interviews with key scientists and plant operators, including Tuohy. The documentary suggests that the fire – the first fire in any nuclear facility – was caused by the relaxation of safety measures, as a result of pressure from the British government to quickly produce fissile materials for nuclear weapons.