UKAEA was fined £140,000 at Wick Sheriff Court today having plead guilty last week to four breaches of the Radioactive Substances Act 1960 between 1963 and 1984.   UKAEA expects to announce in May the preferred option for the retrieval of radioactive particles from the environment around Dounreay.   ... [more]

Scrap metal from the strip-out of the Prototype Fast Reactor (PFR) secondary sodium circuit cells is being re-used by UKAEA at the T3uk purpose built trials centre at Janetstown, on the outskirts of Thurso.   The redundant steel sections, once used to support pipework within the cells, were identified for re-use to assist with other Dounreay decommissioning projects.   ... [more]

DOUNREAY DIRECTOR NAMED AS NEW CHIEF EXECUTIVE Norman Harrison, currently acting chief operating officer of UKAEA, has been appointed its chief executive officer.   A chemist by profession, he was appointed director of Dounreay in 2003.   ... [more]

Public Meeting Thursday 15th February at 6.00pm - Royal Hotel Public Exhibition Thursday 15th February from 2.00pm Options to agree the physical condition of the land that will be available after the Dounreay site has been decommissioned - the site end state - will be the subject of a public meeting.  This will allow the Dounreay Stakeholder Group (DSG) to draft a recommendation for consideration by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA).   ... [more]

Highland councilors will be asked at a meeting of the Resources committee on 14th February 2007 in Inverness to approve the use of contractors who are registered with Constructionline, an Approved List register of assessed companies.   See www.constructionline.co.uk Several councils and other public bodies in Scotland already require contractors and consultants in the construction industry to be registered with Constructionline as part of the pre-qualification requirements when applying for property-related construction tenders.   ... [more]

Norman Harrison, currently acting Chief Operating Officer for the UK Atomic Energy (UKAEA), has been appointed as the new Chief Executive Officer with effect from 1 February 2007.   Announcing the appointment, UKAEA Chairman Barbara Thomas Judge said: "I am delighted that Norman has been chosen as our new Chief Executive.   ... [more]

UKAEA pleaded guilty on 6 February 2007 at Wick Sheriff Court to four charges under the Radioactive Substances Act 1960.   The charges related to the disposal of radioactive waste to a landfill site at Dounreay between 1963 and 1975, and the release of particles from the site to the environment on dates between 1963 and 1984.   ... [more]

The Centre for Transport Policy (CfTP) at The Robert Gordon University (RGU) is challenging members of the public to travel to work a different way for one day in February and record their experiences on camera.   The project is being run as part of the Festival of Social Science, organised by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), who have given £2000 funding towards the project.   ... [more]

A golf enthusiast from Wick has been using his networking skills to help build a range of new contacts for future business.   John Hunter owns and runs Hunter's Promotions Ltd, along with his wife Christine.   ... [more]

A new internet-based guide, accessible via the HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) website for people who trade online is being launched this week.   It outlines the rules for people who trade online for a profit, as opposed to others who are just clearing low value items from the attic.   ... [more]

Customs officers investigating a suspected £250 million VAT missing trader fraud made 10 arrests this morning in UK-wide raids.   Codenamed Operation Euripus, today's action follows a five year investigation, which included one of the biggest swoops ever undertaken by Customs.   ... [more]

The average hourly wage paid to UK workers is 26.5 euros (£17.40), more than a euro higher than the average eurozone total (25.2 euros/£16.55) and sixth in the list of the world's top payers according to a new report, the Global Sectors Outlook (December 2006) from Euler Hermes, the world's largest credit insurance group.   Sweden heads the list of top payers, their employees earning an average of 32.8 euros (£21.53) an hour, closely followed by Denmark, (31.7 euros/£20.81), France (29.6 euros/£19.43) and Germany (28.1 euros/£18.45).   ... [more]

Commercial beef herds in Caithness and the Borders have claimed the top two places in the annual Bank of Scotland Aberdeen-Angus Suckler Herd of the Year awards.   Overall winner is Hamish Pottinger, and sons, Michael and David, who run a 210-cow breeding and finishing enterprise at Greenland Mains, Thurso, Caithness, and runner-up - for the second time - Douglas Tweedie, whose 130-cow breeding and finishing enterprise is based at Middlethird, Gordon, Berwickshire.   ... [more]

Scotland's budding new business brains have just one week left to make it into a new million pound initiative which will help fund the country's next generation of entrepreneurs.   The Starter for 6 project will build the enterprise skills of up to 300 new entrepreneurs over three years, working in Scotland across all business sectors.   ... [more]

Holders of abstraction licences who know in advance that they will not be abstracting in any one year will welcome the announcement from the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) that it will not charge annual subsistence for that year.   Martin Marsden of SEPA said, "This is good news for abstraction licence holders and particularly for farmers who have decided not to grow certain crops that may require irrigation in a particular year.   ... [more]

Are you newly Self Employed or thinking of becoming Self Employed? Do you have a Self Employed tax return to complete? Are you a New Employer? Do you have an Employers Annual Return to complete? Do you want to know about the changes to the Construction Industry Scheme? If you can answer "YES" to any of the above questions & would like to learn more, you may be interested in attending one of HM Revenue & Customs free learning events.   The following events will take place in Thurso; 13th March 2007 AM/PM Paying Your Employees 14th March 2007 AM Becoming Self Employed PM Self Assessment for the Self Employed 15th March 2007 AM Employer's Annual Returns PM New Construction Industry Scheme To book a place in one of our sessions, please telephone 01355 275 207.   ... [more]

Saturday 17th February at Dunbeath Community Centre - 09.30am - 4.15pm A training and information event on polytunnel and outdoor cropping.   Visit to 'Food for Thought', Spittal in the afternoon courtesy of Douglas Henderson Attendance free — all welcome.   ... [more]

A joint marketing campaign between The Highland Council and VisitScotland could see between 5 - 6,000 cruise passengers from Iceland, the Faroe Islands and Norway visiting the North of Scotland and generating around £2.5 million to the Highland economy.   Faroese ferry operators, Smyril Line, have just launched their 2007 brochure featuring holiday packages to the Scottish Highlands.   ... [more]

npower business is urging companies to turn over a new leaf in 2007 and commit to reducing the harmful carbon emissions which contribute to global warming.   Many business owners and their staff will have started 2007 with a list of New Year's resolutions to improve health, wealth and happiness.   ... [more]

A brand new abattoir is set to open in Caithness following grant approval by HIE Caithness and Sutherland.   Local businessman John Sutherland plans to develop a £2.3million purpose-built abattoir on the outskirts of Keiss, eight miles north of Wick.   ... [more]