New Tabloid Hits The Streets At Dounreay

17th March 2007

A free newspaper has hit the streets of Caithness.

But the proprietors of the local John O'Groat Journal and Caithness Courier don't need to worry.

For the new tabloid newspaper is aimed exclusively at workers decommissioning the fast reactor experiment at Dounreay.

The eight-page, full-colour Dounreay News is being issued free every month with a print run of 2000 copies.

The tabloid style of the paper is designed to reflect the fundamental change in the nature of work at the site.

"We've gone from a research and development site to a clean-up and demolition site, so we wanted to reflect that in how we improved the communications at the site," explained editor Sue Thompson of the site's communications department.

The tabloid includes a regular "page three pin-up" - Danny Macdonald, a radiological protection supervisor with shaft isolation contractor Ritchies, is profiled in the first edition this month.

Each edition will include a guest columnist, with local MP John Thurso the first to pen a piece for the "off the record" series.

In an upbeat message to staff about securing jobs to replace those lost through decommissioning, the Lib Dem politician says the far north has the people and environment who can prove the "doom merchants" wrong about the future of the area.

Other features in the first edition include a centre-page spread about the future of the Dounreay Fast Reactor headlined "The Dounreay sphere - museum hall or wrecking ball" and reflecting the views of workers both for and against keeping it intact for future generations.

AMEC business guru Ron Peddie, who is leading the site's efforts to support the social and economic regeneration, is also featured, as are the views of a cross-section of workers about changing employers in the next year to a new site licence company that will be put out for competition by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority.

"Dounreay News is very much about giving a voice to the views and aspirations of real workers about the real issues that affect them," added Sue.

"Dounreay today is all about construction, demolition and industrial clean-up, and doing it safely. Dounreay News can become an important part of the communications about that."

The paper is designed by site graphics firm JCL and printed by Highland Printers.

The newspaper is also available online in Pdf.
See:
http://www.ukaea.org.uk/news/publications_dounreay_news.html