It carried out work on reactors for the British civil and military (submarine fleet) nuclear energy programmes, investigating metallurgy. In the first ten years, it carried out research on materials for fast breeder reactors; it was the first time that niobium had been part of a fast breeder reactor. The site investigated fracture mechanics, nuclear reactor physics and hydraulics.
Work on irradiation of metals was also carried out with the School of Materials, University of Manchester and the Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy, University of Cambridge.