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Atomic energy

Mechanics working on the reactor at Dounreay Atomic Power Station in November 1959.
Mechanics working on the reactor at Dounreay Atomic Power Station in November 1959.
©TopFoto

During World War Two, Britain cooperated with the US on the Manhattan Project and produced the first atomic bombs. The British government expected collaboration on atomic energy to continue but, in 1946, the American McMahon Act forbade the sharing of atomic information.

Related documents

Search using McMahon Act Atomic Energy Authority Windscale

Further reading

  • Authority Historian's Office, Atomic Energy Authority, Atomic Energy in Britain 1939-1975 (Harwell, 1978)