Special Fuel Production Complex 3, Fife

The special fuels used in the programme were both extremely hazardous and rather unstable. This made their production and handling difficult: even given the somewhat casual attitude to risk in the programme the consequences of a serious contamination event had to be taken seriously.

A common approach to the design of facilities for handling of explosive materials is to build structures with very substantial walls but light roofs: any explosion will vent upwards through the light roof causing little damage to the structure and none to surrounding structures.

This was not the approach taken here. The consequences of any escape of either the special fuels or the products of an explosion was too severe: quite possibly most of Fife would have been made uninhabitable, a risk even the programme was unwilling to take. So instead the production and handling facilities were built under large artificial hills, with access via long tunnels with several massive blast doors. In the event of an accident, the earth above the facility would collapse into it, containing any release. Of course no workers would survive, but they were regarded as expendable.

Several accidents did happen without any really significant contamination (although the effects on people are fairly noticeable, still, in some areas). I don't know if this facility is intact: the documentation I have access to is far from complete. In any case I did not attempt access beyond the entrance to one of the tunnels, shown here.