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18 December 03
PREPARING THE GROUND FOR NEW WASTE FACILITY
The  enabling  works for a proposed waste transfer facility at the Dounreay cementation  plant  store are nearing completion. The work has been carried out  in  four distinct parts. Building demolition has been carried out by J Gunn & Sons Ltd, new service gantry completed by Johnson Controls and D Gow &  Sons  Ltd  and  road  re-alignment, drainage and excavation works by M M Miller  (Contractors)  Wick.

16 December 03
Younger People And British The Nuclear Energy Society - New Group
Do you have an active interest in nuclear energy matters? - You do not need to work at Dounreay to join.
If you work or are interested in the nuclear industry then a new email group could be of interest to you.  This new branch of the British Nuclear energy Society is based at Dounreay and is setting up an email group to keep younger members informed of what is happening.  Are you a BNES member or simply interested in hearing more about the opportunities the BNES and YGN offer, in particular the Dounreay BNES Branch??...Opportunities such as: Conferences Seminars Lectures Technical Visits BNES Journal..... the list goes on....The newly formed Dounreay BNES branch is looking to construct a circulation list of:
BNES members  Those interested in becoming BNES members OR simply interested in being kept informed of BNES Activities......

15 December 03
UKAEA Awards £90 Million Contract (Biggest Ever) To RWE Nukem

UKAEA has awarded a ten-year contract, worth upwards of £90 million, to RWE NUKEM for radiological protection services across all its sites. The contract - extendable to 15 years depending on performance - is one of the largest single contracts ever let by UKAEA and was awarded after a competitive tendering exercise.  The contract covers the full range of radiological protection services including health physics monitoring, radiological protection advice and an Approved Dosimetry Service that includes monitoring of personal radiation film badges. It covers UKAEA's decommissioning sites at Dounreay, Caithness, Windscale, Cumbria, Harwell, Oxfordshire and Winfrith, Dorset, together with some services at the fusion research centre at Culham, also in Oxfordshire......

6 December 03
Visitors From Ukraine

Mr Vasyly Kuts and Mr Volodymyr Kolochko from Ukraine visited UKAEA Dounreay this week during their week long stay in the UK. The purpose of their visit was to discuss and view Waste & Decommissioning Strategies at Dounreay. They are pictured here with Derek Campbell of UKAEA during their tour of the Dounreay Cementation Plant

6 December 03
French Students Check Out Dounreay
A group of French students and staff from The UHI Environmental Research Institute visited UKAEA Dounreay this week. They are pictured with Marie Mackay, Dounreay Communications - left - during their tour of the site. While at Dounreay they also visited the Dounreay Cementation Plant and the Waste Receipt Assay Characterisation and Supercompaction facility

21 November 03
PUBLIC PARTICIPATION IN END STATE OF WASTE SHAFT
Consultation Period Launched - Closing Date 7 February 2004
UKAEA is today inviting members of the public to participate in the choice of Best Practicable Environmental Option for remediation of the rock around the waste shaft at Dounreay.  Options for remediating the rock once the waste has been removed range from natural decay of the radioactivity to quarrying large quantities of rock from beneath the seabed for disposal as low level waste.  UKAEA is consulting the public now because the agreed “end state” for decommissioning the shaft will be an important factor in choosing the most appropriate techniques for its hydraulic isolation and retrieval of the waste..........

19 November 03
Committee on Radioactive Waste Management Appoints

18 November 03
Highlands And Islands Enterprise Board Visits Dounreay

12 members of the Highlands & Islands Enterprise Board visited Dounreay recently for a presentation on Dounreay issues and a tour of the site. 

 

18 November 03
A Nostalgic Visit
John Lisman was a civil engineering student at Strathclyde University when, in 1954, he was offered a one year practical experience job with Glasgow firm, Whatlings Ltd. Within a few months, the Inverness born student was despatched to Dounreay where the firm was awarded the main building and civil engineering contract. His ‘home from home’ became the Boston Camp.

15 November 03
URANIUM LINES ARE CLEANED OUT
UKAEA has completed the post-operational clean-out of a redundant uranium processing facility in preparation for its eventual decommissioning. The Amber Area - an annexe of the D1203 uranium recovery plant - contains solvent extraction and dissolver equipment, storage tanks and glove boxes that were used to process uranium. Work started in 1998 to prepare for the clean-out of these facilities with the design and installation of new ventilation equipment manufactured by local engineering companies. This enabled staff to carry out detailed surveys of the work required to clean out the facility. Over an 18-month period, more than 1400 entries were made by staff wearing protective air-line suits to clean out all the waste residue. This produced approximately 250 drums of solid low-level waste................

13 November 03
SKYLINE CHANGES AGAIN AS BUILDINGS ARE DEMOLISHED
More  demolition  of redundant buildings has brought further changes to the skyline  at  Dounreay. The latest facilities to be knocked down are the old farmhouse  and  the former fast reactor facilities building known as D8542.

7 November 03
NEW UKAEA CHIEF EXECUTIVE APPOINTED

Former BP Senior Executive to lead pioneering authority
The Minister of Energy, Stephen Timms, has appointed Mr Dipesh J Shah as the new Chief Executive to the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) in succession to Dr John McKeown. He will take up his appointment on November 15, 2003.  Dipesh Shah, 50, has spent most of his career at BP plc. Before leaving BP late in 2002 he was Vice President, Acquisitions and Divestments. Prior to that he had been CEO for the Forties Pipeline System and General Manager of the BP Grangemouth complex........

7 November 03
Japanese Visitors At Dounreay
Seven members of the Japan Federation of Bar Associations Members visited Dounreay recently.  They are part of a Committee making studies on pollution control and preservation of environment.  During their visit they had a site tour and received a presentation on Dounreay's past, present and future.

28 October 03
PETER WELSH RETIRES AS DOUNREAY DIRECTOR
Peter  Welsh  retired as director of Dounreay on 29 October 2003 after five years  in charge of the site. He took over in August 1998 during one of the site's  most  difficult  periods  and immediately took charge of the site's response  to  143  recommendations  made by regulators in their 1998 Safety Audit.

21 October 03
From The Scotsman
Dounreay director rues rabbit drop-in
PETER Welsh is in charge of an industrial site which is spending £150 million a year, and over the next 50 years will let contracts worth £4 billion. It therefore annoys him somewhat that he can be upstaged by a rabbit.

20 October 03
UNIVERSITY SPIN-OFF FROM
UK/FRANCE DECOMMISSIONING AGREEMENT

UKAEA  Dounreay  and  the  UHI Millennium Institute are to collaborate with their  counterparts  in France in a ground-breaking initiative to establish common international standards in decommissioning qualifications.  An  agreement to share decommissioning knowledge and experience has been in place between the UKAEA and the French agency CEA (Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique)  since  1999. This has now been expanded to include education and skills   training  in  decommissioning  through  UHI,  the  Joseph  Fourier University  of Grenoble and the National Institute for Nuclear Sciences and Techniques (INSTN), CEA's training and education arm.

18 October 03
NOSTALGIC RETURN TO DOUNREAY
FOR FORMER FARM RESIDENTS

Guests of honour at opening of £5 million complex.
Two  of  the  last  people  to  live  on  a  Caithness  farm  before it was transformed  during  the 1950s into a world-leading centre for research and development  of  nuclear energy today returned to their former home to set the seal on a £5 million investment in its decommissioning.  The  farm  at Lower Dounreay was home to Mrs Elizabeth Nicolson until 1945, and  Mr  Morris  Pottinger  until  May 1956. The UK Atomic Energy Authority acquired  the house and farmland from Mr Pottinger and his late wife Nettie in  November  1955  following a Government announcement that Britain's fast reactor experiment would be sited at Dounreay.   The Dounreay farmhouse dates from 1859. Following its acquisition by the UKAEA in 1955, it was used variously for office accommodation and storage of archive material.

15 October 03
UKAEA ANNOUNCES PREFERRED BIDDERS FOR CONDITIONED WASTE STORE

Multi-million Pound Contract Will Create 200 New Jobs
Four  companies  have  been  named today as the preferred bidders to form a design  alliance with the UK Atomic Energy Authority for one of the largest construction projects in the Dounreay Site Restoration Plan.  Atkins  (design  integrator), Serco Assurance (building services and safety and  environment),  Taylor  Woodrow (civil engineering) and Weir Strachan & Henshaw  (mechanical  handling)  will work with UKAEA to form an integrated team  capable  of providing a concept design for a solid intermediate-level waste store in 2004 and the detailed design by 2005.

7 October 03
DOUNREAY DELIVERS ANNUAL REPORT
ON SAFETY AND ENVIRONMENT

The  UK Atomic Energy Authority today delivered its annual report on safety and  the environment at Dounreay during 2002/03 to the site's local liaison committee.  Dr  Guy  Owen, UKAEA's head of safety and environment at Dounreay, said the site  continued to be one of the safest industrial workplaces in the UK but insisted there was no room for complacency.

2 October 03
US COMPANY TO HELP UKAEA GEAR UP FOR NEW CHALLENGE
UKAEA has awarded a contract to CH2M Hill to help it prepare for changes in the way the UK Government manages the decommissioning of UKAEA and BNFL sites. The company will assist UKAEA to develop the processes and procedures needed to meet the requirements of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, which is due to come into being in 2005. At Dounreay, this will involve an employee of CH2M Hill joining the team that is producing lifecycle baselines and near term work plans. CH2M Hill is an American environmental management company whose management of the US Department of Energy’s site at Rocky Flats, Colorado, is regarded as a model for the approach which the Liabilities Management Unit of DTI, the forerunner of the NDA, is seeking to introduce to the UK nuclear decommissioning programme.

2 October 03
AMEC WINS CONTRACT FOR SUBSTATION EXTENSION
UKAEA has awarded a contract to AMEC for the construction of an extension to the electrical substation that serves the complex of waste management plants at Dounreay. The project is designed to double the capacity of the station to meet the predicted growth in demand for electricity from new construction and plant modernisation in this area of the site. The total value of this work is expected to be in the region of £1 million. Construction is expected to take until May 2004 to complete.

2 October 03
LOCAL COMPANY MAKES TOOL TO SAMPLE LIQUID METAL IN REACTOR
A local engineering firm is constructing a 3m-long tool that will sample the liquid metal surface in the primary cooling circuit of the experimental Dounreay Fast Reactor.
Norfrost Technologies Ltd was awarded a contract to design and manufacture the device. It will penetrate the rotating shield of the reactor, cut out samples of the oxide crust that has formed on the sodium-potassium alloy and lift the samples vertically to a glove-box attached to the top of the tool on the floor of the reactor hall. From there, the samples will be removed to a laboratory on site for X-ray diffractometry. The tool is currently under construction in the Castletown workshop of Norfrost Technologies Ltd. UKAEA expects to use the results of the analysis to support the safety case for the destruction of the 57 tonnes of sodium-potassium in the primary circuit of the reactor.

2 October 03
FORMER WASTE STORE IS DEMOLISHED
A disused storage facility for drums of radioactive waste is the latest building at Dounreay to be demolished. The decommissioning and demolition of the building known as D1254 took 15 months to complete. The decommissioning work was carried out by UKAEA and Mitsui Babcock personnel while the demolition work was carried out by Gunn’s of Lybster.

2 October 03
CONTRACT AWARDED FOR LATEST PHASE OF DEMOLITION WORK
Further evidence that decommissioning is gathering pace Dounreay has come with the award of a demolition contract to KDC Contractors Ltd, of Manchester. The contract, valued at around £140,000, is for the demolition of the fast reactor facilities building and the original Lower Dounreay farmhouse. The demolition of both buildings is necessary in order to make way for the construction of major new facilities for the retrieval and treatment of wastes from two authorised disposal and storage facilities - the shaft and silo.
The facilities building, built in 1961, provided engineering and experimental laboratory facilities for the fast reactor programme. The farmhouse (circa 1900) has been variously used by UKAEA, including storage of the site archives. Joe McVey, senior project manager for the demolitions, said the award of this contract was a major step forward in Dounreay's decommissioning programme because it will clear the ground for the provision of important new waste management facilities. "The demolition of these buildings will be further tangible proof that UKAEA is progressing with decommissioning."

30 September 03
Dounreay Local Liaison Committee Visit
The Cementation Plant

Dounreay Local Liaison Committee took the opportunity to visit the Cementation Plant during their recent briefing session at Dounreay.  They are pictured with Tony Wratten (right) of UKAEA.   The local liaison committee is made up of a number of local people and councillors as part of UKAEA's open approach to the work being carried out at the site.

 17 September 03
PUBLIC PARTICIPATION IN OPTIONS FOR LOW LEVEL WASTE AT DOUNREAY
Options  for  the long-term management of solid low level radioactive waste from the decommissioning of Dounreay are  the  subject of a public consultation announced today by the UK Atomic Energy Authority.  Approximately  100,000  cubic  metres  of  solid  low  level waste (LLW) is expected to arise during the 50-60 year life of the Dounreay Site Restoration Plan.

16 September 03
NEW DIRECTOR OF DOUNREAY APPOINTED
Norman Harrison will lead £4bn Site Restoration Programme The  Secretary  of  State  for  Trade  and Industry has appointed Mr Norman Harrison  as  Director,  Dounreay, and a Member of the UKAEA Board. He will succeed Mr Peter Welsh, who is retiring on 31 October 2003.  Manchester-born  Norman  Harrison, 51, is currently director of Sizewell B, British  Energy's Pressurised Water Reactor station in Suffolk. He has been in the power industry for 25 years, starting as an assistant chemist with a coal-fired power station in his home town and followed by appointments at a number  of  north-west  power  stations. Prior to Sizewell B he was station director at Heysham 1 in Lancashire...................

5 September 03
SCOTLAND'S FIRST REACTOR REACHES
FINAL STAGE OF DECOMMISSIONING
Scotland's  first  operational  nuclear  reactor  is one step away from its complete decommissioning.  The  penultimate  stage  of  decommissioning  the  Dounreay  Materials Test Reactor  (DMTR)  has  been  completed,  leaving the reactor block ready for demolition  following a period of passive care and maintenance to allow for further radioactive decay.  DMTR was one of three reactors built and operated at UKAEA Dounreay between 1958 and 1994.  All three reactors are now in their decommissioning stages.

4 September 03
TEENAGERS LEAD BRITAIN IN
DECOMMISSIONING APPRENTICESHIP
Britain's    first   modern   apprentices   in   nuclear   operations   and decommissioning have started a three-year training programme at the leading edge of Britain's nuclear clean-up.   Five  young  people from Caithness have joined a pilot initiative set up by the UK Atomic Energy Authority to teach them the skills needed to dismantle the former experimental reactor establishment at Dounreay.  They  are  among  21  young  people recruited this summer to UKAEA training schemes - the highest intake of young people at the Caithness site for over a decade.

31 August 03
NEW FORSS BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY PARK
UP AND RUNNING

 
The first tenants of the newly refurbished accommodation at Forss Business and Technology Park have completed the three-mile journey from Dounreay.  Staff from the Major Projects Engineering Division, UKAEA have begun to populate the former derelict Naval Base at Forss bringing it back to life...........

26 August 03
UKAEA Annual Review 2002/03 Just Out
The Review contains a month-by-month summary of UKAEA’s key achievements across all areas of its environmental restoration and fusion research activities.  The review is in Pdf format.

Dounreay Radioactive Solvents And Oils
Options Consultation Closes 30 September 03

25 August 03
DECOMMISSIONING MILESTONE IS SET IN CEMENT
Decommissioning of the former experimental reactor establishment at Dounreay has taken another important step forward with the green light to empty a series of tanks containing a legacy of radioactive liquid waste from the site's reprocessing era.  The liquid will be transferred from underground storage tanks to a modern treatment plant where it will be mixed with cement and set inside 500-litre drums.  It is expected to take 10-15 years to empty and solidify the contents of all the tanks. The contents - an acidic liquor containing fission products - were created by the chemical separation of irradiated reactor fuel undertaken at Dounreay until 1996.......

1 August 03
SEPA Management of Dounreay Regulation
The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) has announced a number of changes to its internal procedures for regulating Dounreay. The action follows the recommendations of an inquiry, commissioned by SEPA, which highlighted weaknesses in communications and management systems.

16 July 03
MAJOR CHANGES TO DOUNREAY AUTHORISATION

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) has made significant changes to the authorisation covering UKAEA Dounreay's discharges of gaseous radioactive waste. The changes mean a cut of 59% in the quantity of tritium that the site is allowed to release to the environment and will come into effect on Friday 18 July.  The change also permits the operation of UKAEA's new facility for collecting and disposing of liquid waste to sea. This facility, known as the Low Level Liquid Effluent Treatment Plant (LLLETP), will replace the old sea discharge tanks that were the subject of a SEPA enforcement notice in January 2002.  UKAEA is required by SEPA to improve the discharge system for gaseous waste from the main facilities in the fuel cycle area (FCA).............................

10 July 03
UKAEA  ANNOUNCES  CONTRACT  TO  DECOMMISSION
WESTERN EUROPE'S FIRST NUCLEAR REACTOR
The  United  Kingdom  Atomic  Energy  Authority (UKAEA) today announced the final  decommissioning  of the first reactor in Western Europe. GLEEP - the Graphite Low Energy Experimental Pile - first went critical in 1947 and was shut down in 1990.  The  contract  for  its  dismantling  has  been let to Renfrew based Mitsui Babcock.  Decommissioning is planned to be completed by autumn 2004.  GLEEP  played  a  key  role  in  the development of civil nuclear energy in Britain.  It  was used in investigations into how to make a nuclear reactor work including the early design and development of Magnox nuclear fuel used in  commercial generating stations operating today.

9 July 03
PARTICLE 41 FOUND
Same details as earlier finds.

1 July 03
UKAEA LAUNCHES PUBLIC PARTICIPATION
IN DISPOSAL OF SOLVENTS AND OILS
The closing date for comments is 30 September 2003.
UKAEA Dounreay today invited members of the public to have their say in the options  for disposal of radioactive solvents and oils that are a legacy of fast reactor research and development at the Caithness site.  Launching  the  second  stage  of  a  pilot for public participation in the Dounreay Site Restoration Plan, site director Peter Welsh said it was a new opportunity  for individuals and organisations to communicate directly with UKAEA about how the site is decommissioned and its environment restored.

27 June 03
RABBIT TEST RESULTS SENT TO FOOD STANDARDS AGENCY
UKAEA Dounreay today has sent to the Scottish Environment Protection Agency and  the Food Standards Agency the findings of laboratory tests carried out on  rabbit  faeces  found  in an area of the site historically used for the burial of low-level waste.

25 June 03
UKAEA COMMITTED TO BEING SUPPLIER OF CHOICE TO NDA
Draft Nuclear Sites and Radioactive Substances Bill
UKAEA is determined to be the chosen supplier of choice to the new Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) for the management of its former nuclear research sites............ 

24 June 03
Creation Of Nuclear Clean Up Body

13 May 03
FURTHER INVESTMENT AT FORSS
Caithness and Sutherland Enterprise (CASE) has committed a further £440,000 towards the creation of a hi-tech business park near Thurso.  In addition the project has secured £732,545 from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).  The former Forss US Naval Base - which has been idle for over a decade - is being transformed into a Business and Technology Park, which is set to attract tenants associated with the decommissioning of the nearby Dounreay nuclear plant.......................................

12 May 03
PARTICLE FIND 39
A suspected  radioactive  particle resulting from historical operations at Dounreay was found during routine monitoring of Sandside Beach today.........................

29 April 03
TREATMENT PLANT TO CLEAN UP EFFLUENT FROM REACTOR DECOMMISSIONING
The  UK  Atomic  Energy  Authority  has applied for planning permission to  construct  a  new  plant  to clean up radioactive effluent that will arise  during  the next  phase of decommissioning the Prototype Fast Reactor at Dounreay.  The  £2.4  million  project  will  remove  radioactivity from the effluent before it is discharged to the sea.  Since  the  reactor  closed  in  1994, the fuel has been removed and a £17 million plant built to destroy the 1500 tonnes of sodium liquid metal used as coolant.

10 April 03
PARTICLE 36 FIND ON SANDSIDE BEACH
Another suspected radioactive particle resulting from historical operations at Dounreay was found during routine monitoring of Sandside Beach today. It was the second to be found today.

 

10 April 03
STATEMENT
from SCOTTISH ENVIRONMENT PROTECTION AGENCY
PARTICLES HEALTH EFFECTS RESEARCH
SEPA has published the most recent report from its research project into the health effects of particles from Dounreay.  The report is a review of the procedures used for monitoring Sandside beach. It also calculates the minimum detectable particle activity and compares it with statutory requirements, and reviews two documents which comment on the procedures used at Sandside.

10 April 03
PARTICLE 35 FIND ON SANDSIDE BEACH

8 April 03
PARTICLE 34 FIND ON SANDSIDE BEACH

4 April 03
Daughters At Work Day
Daughters and Sons who came to Dounreay for Daughters to Work Day on Thursday 3rd April 2003.  The initiative is spearheaded by the Girl Guides UK to give girls a chance to expand their horizons in thinking about their future careers.  This year however UKAEA Dounreay decided to extend the day to sons as well.  57 daughters and sons visited the site.  During their visit they spent time with their parents, toured the site, visited the emergency services and received talks by female members of staff and from the training department on what careers are available at Dounreay........

31 March 03
30th Particle Find

26 March 03
HIGHLANDS CAN HAVE LEADING EDGE
IN DECOMMISSIONING SKILLS SECTOR

A  conference  in  Inverness  today  heard  how the growth of new skills in nuclear  decommissioning  at  Dounreay can become an important asset in the sustainable development of the Highland economy.  Many  of  the  skills  being developed in and around Dounreay in support of Britain's  most complex nuclear site restoration project to date will be in growing demand as more former nuclear facilities are decommissioned, giving the Highland economy a leading edge, according to the site's director.

20 March 03
29th PARTICLE FIND ON SANDSIDE BEACH

18 March 03
DOUNREAY LAUNCHES FIRST APPRENTICESHIPS IN DECOMMISSIONING
Young  people  are to be offered apprenticeships in nuclear decommissioning for  the  first  time  at  Dounreay  as part of the £4 billion programme to dismantle the experimental reactor establishment.  The  UK  Atomic  Energy  Authority today announced it is setting up a pilot scheme  with the aim of creating the first Modern Apprenticeship in Nuclear Operations and Decommissioning in the UK. An initial four young people will be  recruited  over  the  next  few months to begin their apprenticeship in August..........................

17 March 03
MAJOR PROJECTS TEAM TO SET UP HQ ON NEW DECOMMISSIONING BUSINESS PARK
A new division of the UK Atomic Energy Authority set up to help deliver the environmental  restoration  of  former  nuclear research facilities such as Dounreay  is to be based on a business park being developed in Caithness by the private sector.  Approximately  140  members  of  staff  of  currently based at Dounreay are expected to take up occupancy at Forss in the summer...................................... 

11 March 03
SEERAD Visit
Members of the Scottish Executive Environment and Rural Affairs Department (SEERAD) visited Dounreay on Thursday 6th March during their two day visit to Caithness.  The group enjoyed a tour of the Dounreay site and a tour of the Dounreay Visitor Centre, before heading back to their various locations across Scotland.  SEERAD are also represented on the Dounreay Local Liaison Committee.  Pictured with the group in the Visitor Centre, explaining the challenges of dismantling and removing the old Prototype Fast Reactor, is Colin Punler, Dounreay Communications Manager.

4 March 03
Visit From North Highland College

28 February 03
VALUE OF DECOMMISSIONING CONTRACTS INCREASES BY ALMOST 50 PER CENT
The value of work won by companies at Dounreay has increased by almost 50 per cent since 1998-99 and is expected to remain high for several years to come. This was stated by Mr Robert Nicol, the site's head of finance and contracts, when he addressed members of Caithness Business Club in Thurso.  "During 2002-03 we are letting approximately £95 million of work in contracts, compared to £61 million in 1998", he said. "It underlines the growth there has been in opportunities to do business at Dounreay because of the site restoration plan. Just over a third of this work is going to businesses in the Highlands and Islands, and I have no doubt that companies based here have the potential to increase that share in competition with firms from other parts of the UK. Wherever we can, we want to assist Highlands and Islands Enterprise make the most of these opportunities for the benefit of the economy of the region."

25 February 03
Business Opportunities At Dounreay
At a special seminar organised by Orkney Enterprise, companies and organisations from the islands were invited to register an interest in finding out if the massive Dounreay project could become an important source of income in the future.  It was stressed that many non-specialist skills and supplies will be needed - everything from civil engineering and construction work to day-to-day goods like the food required for the 2,500-plus workforce at the Caithness site.

13 February 03
New Police Command Centre
60 new construction jobs as £4million contract awarded to highland based J R MacLeod Contractors.

 

24 January 03
Engineering Apprentices At UKAEA Excellent Experience
UKAEA Engineering Apprentices not only gain experience in their trade field during their 4 years, but also spend a 3-month period during their 3rd Year in a design office placement.  Over the past 3 years RWE Nukem, who provide a Design and Consultancy Service on site, have taken 5 UKAEA apprentices and shown them the design processes and systems they use on a day to day basis.

21 January 03
£16  MILLION FACILITY WILL ENABLE FOREIGN WASTE
TO BE RETURNED TO CUSTOMERS

The  UK  Atomic  Energy  Authority  has  applied for planning permission to construct   a   new  facility  for  the  management  of  intermediate-level radioactive waste (ILW) at Dounreay.  The  proposed  waste  transfer  facility is designed to increase the site's capacity  for  storage  of  waste  from  the  decommissioning  programme at Dounreay.  It  will  also  enable  the long-term management of liquid waste after  it  has  been  conditioned  in cement. The new facility will allow a small proportion of this cemented waste to be returned to foreign customers from 2008 under the terms of historical reprocessing contracts.
50 New Jobs
Subject to planning and regulatory consent, the new facility is expected to create  50 jobs during its two-year construction and a further five when it comes  into  operation. It is expected to cost in the region of £16 million to design and build............

2002 Archive News
Dounreay Particles Advisory Group

Site Today

Site At Completion Of Decommissioning

Nuclear Industry News and Links

Atomic Links On Caithness.org

A Decommissioning Alliance 12 February 2002
The six companies in the DFR Primary Circuit Decontamination Alliance with UKAEA are -
Halcrow (design),
Interserve (mechanical and electrical),
Edmund Nuttall (building and civil works)
Mitsui Babcock (plant operations),
NNC (safety and environment) and
Framatome (robotics).

Dounreay Past Present And Future 26 December 2002
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.