Sellafield has been looking back on its well-loved visitor centre adverts.
The adverts were first released on television in the 1990s, to encourage more people to visit the site’s visitor centre amid a rise in its popularity.
The firm often shares and reflects on old memories of the site – which has a 77-year history – as a reminder of how it has changed over the years and for workers and locals past and present to reminisce on bygone days.
Built by British Nuclear Fuels Limited, or BNFL, Sellafield Visitors Centre was a £5 million attraction, opened in 1988 by Prince Philip, that aimed to open up the nuclear industry to the public.
It went on to become one of the most popular tourist attractions in Cumbria, bringing in over 500,000 visitors each year and operated successfully for 20 years.
In 1995, the centre underwent a multi-million-pound refurbishment, with all new exhibits and the introduction of the Mighty Atom – a mascot people still remember today.
As well as visiting the centre, people could also take guided coach tours of the site.
When the visitors centre was first built, BNFL was a significant national industry, but there were still negative public perceptions around nuclear.
This is in part believed to come from its secretive military origins after World War Two and safety concerns as a result of historic nuclear disasters around the world.
So as the centre boomed in popularity, anti-nuclear protests also came with it. Protests were frequently held in the grounds and in 1992, U2’s Bono even made an appearance.
As the UK’s nuclear industry grew and BNFL expanded into commercial reprocessing operations in the 1990s, the visitors centre was revamped to reflect the company’s global reach and to help inform national and international customers and stakeholders.
It was during this time period that the centre developed the confidence – and found the budget – to start national television advertising campaigns.
Memorable adverts included the ‘I just work here’ shorts and the appearance of well-known information officer Enid Winter.
In 2002, BNFL handed over creative control of the centre to the London Science Museu, which built a new exhibition focused on the wider energy debate and the place of nuclear within it.
But in 2004, the formation of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority saw priorities on the site change again.
Sellafield’s mission became focussed on cleaning up the legacy of the past, reducing hazards and managing nuclear waste – as it still is today.
As Sellafield is an almost entirely taxpayer-funded mission, it needed to get the maximum value from the site’s annual budget, and as a result, the visitors centre was no longer commercially viable.
As a free to enter attraction, it had high running and maintenance costs.
Global events like the September 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001 also changed the security arrangements at nuclear sites like Sellafield – meaning that things like the bus tours of the site were stopped.
Eventually, the visitors centre closed its doors in 2008 and the building was demolished in 2019.
As an alternative, an entire floor in Whitehaven’s Beacon Museum was dedicated to sharing the stories of the past, present and future of the site. The exhibition also got a revamp in 2022.
Sellafield said the story of the visitors centre reflected the story of the site itself and the changes to its missions and focus it has gone through over the decades.
