Dounreay News Index
Latest News
On The Dounreay Web Site
Latest News Nuclear Decommissioning Authority
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Dounreay Items In Caithness Business Index
19 February 09
Hi-tech
"Worm" Probes Subterranean Pipeline
 A
hi-tech "worm" is probing a subterranean pipeline used to discharge
radioactive effluent from Dounreay between 1957 and 1992. The £100,000
pipe crawler has sent back video and radiation readings during its
five-day journey some 45 metres underground. The data will be analysed
by a project team investigating how to leave the disused system in a
safe condition as part of the site clean-up. A bundle of four cast iron
pipes, each 23cm in diameter, was laid in the 1950s to discharge
effluent from the fast reactor experiment.
Dounreay News - 16 October 08
Cementation Plant Up And Running Again
 Dounreay’s
cementation plant went back to work this year, following an extensive
remediation programme. The plant receives highly radioactive raffinate
(a liquid by-product of fuel reprocessing), and conditions it
chemically, before immobilising it in drums of cement, making it
passively safe for long-term storage. The whole procedure is carried
out remotely inside heavily shielded cells. The plant had been shut
down in September 2005 following a spillage of raffinate and cement
powder in the cell. There was no release of radioactive material to the
environment.
DSRL Announces A Change To The Senior Management
Michael Dunnett is to succeed Jerry Abbot as Head of Human Resources.
Countdown To Demolition For The Plutonium Criticality
Laboratory
The last ventilation fan has been turned off for the final time in what
was once Dounreay’s dirtiest building.
Filter Idea A Crushing Success
Clever ideas are helping to improve ways of removing radioactive waste
from some of Dounreay’s dirtiest plants.
Largest Lab Comes Apart
Over a quarter of the laboratories in Dounreay’s Fuel Cycle Area, which
provided support to the whole of the site, have now been taken apart.
26 January 08
Dounreay
Heritage To Be Preserved
 He might not think so today, but future generations
could regard James Gunn as the most important person ever to work at
Dounreay. For the former chemist and project manager has taken up a new
part-time role as the site's first heritage officer. His role is to
preserve aspects of the site that will give future generations a
glimpse of life at Dounreay when the site itself has long gone. Later
this month, James will commission consultants to draw up the site's
first heritage strategy. An important and headline-grabbing part of the
strategy will be about whether to scrap the contaminated DFR sphere as
part of the site clean-up and demolition. But James says there is a lot
more to the site's heritage than just a giant steel ball.
24 May 07
Dounreay Not Listed As Possible Site For New Nuclear
Power Station
Siting New Nuclear Power Stations - Availability and Options
for Government' by Jackson Consulting
The UK Government has set out, as part of its May 2007 consultation on
nuclear energy, a proposed process for a Strategic Siting Assessment
(SSA) of potential locations for new nuclear power stations. This would
be carried out only if the Government concludes following this
consultation that nuclear should continue to be part of our energy mix.
The report says that Dounreay is not an existing site
of a power station and is not considered to be a potential site for new
power station and that there are significant
savings to be made if existing sites are used. Also
building plants near to the point of use show big savings in
transmission losses that private companies would want to reduce
overheads. An article in New Scientist -
"UK backs new generation of nuclear reactors"
summarises the latest thinking as set out in the paper linked
above. It would appear that Caithness cannot look to see a
power station to replace any of the jobs currently due to disappear due
to the decommissioning of the Dounreay site and other solutions will be
required.
Energy White Paper DTI
UKAEA
NDA
Take part in consultation on the Future
of Nuclear Power
Caithness Socio Economic Strategy Group
Dounreay
Stakeholder Group
17 April 07
SUSPECTED RADIOACTIVE PARTICLE DETECTED AT MURKLE
A suspected radioactive particle was detected during
monitoring of Murkle beach on Monday 16 April 2007. It was removed and
taken to Dounreay for laboratory analysis. The Scottish Environment
Protection Agency and other interested parties have been informed. In
2005, a single particle was detected during the monitoring of Dunnet
Beach, which had been recommended by the Dounreay Particles Advisory
Group. As a result, UKAEA undertook additional surveys of the nearby
beaches at Murkle and Peedie in 2006, along with Dunnet again. No
particles were detected. The Third Report by the Dounreay Particles
Advisory Group, published in November 2006, recommended that the three
Dunnet Bay beaches should be monitored annually and this is now
underway.
22 February 07
New
Director to Drive Forward Dounreay Clean-up
 Simon
Middlemas has been appointed as the new Director of the nuclear
decommissioning site at Dounreay in succession to Norman Harrison.
Simon has been Acting Director since August 2006 and prior to that he
was Deputy Director. He joined Dounreay in 2004 as New Build Project
Sponsor. Welcoming the appointment, Norman Harrison , UKAEA's new Chief
Executive, said: "I am personally very pleased that Simon has been
chosen as my successor. He has an exceptional grasp of every aspect of
decommissioning at Dounreay and is totally committed to the site's
success. He has already made a major contribution to Dounreay's new
focus on project delivery and the recent site restructuring programme
to prepare the site for competition. I am sure his appointment will be
widely welcomed by the workforce and the community of Caithness."
26
January 07
Isolation Of Dounreay's Shaft Commences
 Dounreay
has started drilling up to 400 boreholes around the site's waste shaft
in the biggest step so far towards its eventual clean-out.
Grout will be injected through the boreholes to seal fissures in the
rock around the 65 metre deep shaft and so create a giant containment
barrier in the shape of a boot around the shaft that will isolate the
radioactive waste from groundwater. The project - the first of its kind
in the world - will prevent large volumes of groundwater flowing into
the shaft during waste retrieval and becoming contaminated. It will
also reduce the risk of leakage from the shaft in the
interim.
Recent Photos From Dounreay
More About The Shaft UKAEA
On Caithness.org
UKAEA
In Caithness Business section UKAEA
Dounreay Web Site
Video Presentation On The Shaft
Dounreay
News 2006 Archive
Dounreay News 2005 Archive
Dounreay News 2004 Archive
Dounreay News 2003 Archive
Dounreay News 2002 Archive
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UKAEA History - The
First Fifty Years
The
Dounreay Project
This black and white film, produced in 1959, shows the construction of
Dounreay and its effects on the surrounding community.
Historic
Footage Of The Construction Of Dounreay
In a tiny rural hamlet in Caithness over fifty years ago, work began on
the construction of Britain's first nuclear fast reactor. This historic
event was filmed and was released in November 2009 for the fiftieth
anniversary of the Dounreay Fast Reactor going critical.
19 February 07
Special Report On Nuclear Industry - Guardian
Dounreay.com
Dounreay Stakeholder Group - New Web Site
UKAEA
Dounreay
Visitor Centre is closed.
Caithness Horizons
opened in December 2008 and holds a Dounreay Exhibition
Dounreay
- Community And Economy
Dounreay - Socio Economic Development Plan 2005 - 06
Particle Finds In Caithness
Particles
Section At UKAEA Web Site
Particles In Marine Environment Public Participation
Consultation
On Dounreay Particles
Dounreay
Site Restoration Plan Public Participation
Dounreay
Publications
Dounreay
Contractor Information
The Shaft
Nuclear
Industry Links
UKAEA History - The First Fifty
Years
UKAEA History - Fast
Breeder
Site Spend At Dounreay
Location
Map and Getting There
Visiting - Site Requirements Access,
deliveries,etc.
Jobs At
Dounreay
Caithness
Horizons - New Visitor Centre Plans
Civil
Nuclear Constabulary Redesignated from 1
April 2005
Getting To Dounreay
Nuclear
Decommissioning Authority
Took over
responsibility for all nuclear sites being decommissioned on 1 April
2005.
Glassblowing At
Dounreay, Caithness
 Although,
sadly, no longer in existence, many will be familiar with the setting
up of the Caithness Glass Company in 1961, less will be aware that
glassworking existed in the county several years beforehand. In
September 1956 Caithness saw the arrival of the first glassblower at
UKAEA Dounreay.
11 August 05
NDA's Draft Strategy
More
About Dounreay
Site Summary (file size
989kb)
Category Summaries
New
Construction (file
size 886kb)
Decommissioning
& Termination (file
size 1.6mb)
Waste and
Nuclear Materials Management (file
size 599kb)
Site Support (file size 1.2mb)
Support
Services (file
size 1.5mb)
Stakeholder
Support (file
size 1.9mb)
Revenue Income (file size 1.3mb)
Near
Term Work Plan - all UKAEA Sites
Site
Today
Site
At Completion Of Decommissioning
This is just one
possible scenario. Other photos have been produced showing
waste storage buildings.
Nuclear
Industry News and Links
Atomic Links On
Caithness.org
Dounreay
Past Present And Future
 The importance of Dounreay to
the county - its people and economy is now extremely
important. But it is the prospects of the work on
decommissioning that holds the key to the future prosperity of not just
Caithness but the wider area of the north of Scotland and
beyond. The increasing magnitude of the undertaking is
beginning to be realised by the whole country as very large contracts
are being awarded. To reflect the importance to the area
Caithness.org has been granted access to some historical photographs
from the UKAEA archives for publication in a new
section. The historical pictures have
been set up in a gallery of their own and others will be added if they
become available.
Dounreay
Fire & Ambulance Service
Over
Dounreay Once Again
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