News
Highlands and Islands regional Labour MSP David Stewart has called for action on the Caithness economy following a visit to Dounreay. Mr Stewart said, "I had a useful and informative visit to Dounreay and met with trade union representatives and Dounreay Director Simon Middlemass.
A bid is to be made by The Highland Council to the Scottish Government for a further £1,668,000 of grant aid to fully fund the repairs to council properties/infrastructure and community assets caused by the storm damage of October last year. In March, the Council has received a grant of £4 million towards the repair bill.
Spring 2008 will bring the arrival of the fastest ferry over the Pentland Firth. A new catamaran state of the art high speed ferry will whisk passengers from Gills terminal in Caithnes over to Orkney.
A new section of website focusing on the regeneration efforts in Caithness and North Sutherland has been launched. The importance of the work now going on cannot be underestimated and a look at the bottom of this page shows the bodies involved in this new process to find a new future for the far north post Dounreay.
ANNUAL REPORT HIGHLIGHTS DECOMMISSIONING PROGRESS The annual report on progress to decommission Dounreay has been published by UKAEA, which is responsible for carrying out the safe clean-up and demolition of the site on behalf of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA). It covers the 12-month period from April 1, 2006.
The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall today opened a visitor's centre built in memory of The Late Queen Mother. The �900,000 centre is based at The Castle of Mey, The Queen Mother's former summer residence.
The annual report on progress to decommission the former experimental reactor site at Dounreay is published today by UKAEA, which is responsible for carrying out the safe clean-up and demolition of the site on behalf of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA). It covers the 12-month period from 1st April 2006.
Highland Council's new leadership team visited Dounreay on July 20 to see how Scotland's biggest nuclear clean-up project is changing the face of the north Highlands. Recently-elected convener Councillor Sandy Park was accompanied by the authority's new chief executive Alistair Dodds on a tour of the �2.9 billion project to decommission the fast reactor experiment.
Improvements have been made to the UKAEA's procedures for temporary waste storage following shortcomings identified by the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate. Speaking outside Wick Sheriff Court, where UKAEA was fined �15,000 after pleading guilty to the charge, Simon Middlemas, Dounreay's site director said "We accept some mistakes were made in the Marshall Lab at the beginning of last year resulting in a worker receiving a very minimal plutonium intake.
Roy Kirk has been appointed to the post of inward investment manager by the Caithness Regeneration Partnership. The role has been created to assist Caithness and North Sutherland's economy through the effects of the Dounreay nuclear plant's run-down.
LOCAL COMMUNITIES BENEFIT FROM DOUNREAY COMMUNITIES FUND Dounreay Communities Fund has started well with over �13,000 already being donated to fifty-seven local charities and organisations. The fund, launched on 1st April is provided by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority and is supplemented by UKAEA through a workforce safety dividend at Dounreay.
ABSL POWER SOLUTIONS AND ULTRACELL(r) PARTNER TO MARKET PORTABLE FUEL CELL SYSTEMS ACROSS EUROPE ABSL Power Solutions Ltd (ABSL), a leading UK portable power developer and manufacturer, and UltraCell Corporation, a leading producer of reformed methanol fuel cells (RMFCs) for mobile power applications, today signed a partnership agreement to deliver solutions based on UltraCell's groundbreaking fuel cell system, the XX25(tm), in the UK and throughout Europe. Under the terms of the new agreement, ABSL will market the XX25 system in the UK and across Europe.
Trading Standards Officers at The Highland Council are calling on consumers to be on their guard when buying on the internet after a survey highlighted that 40% of on-line business failed to fully comply with the Law. A recent in-depth survey has uncovered a variety of problems for consumers such as hidden costs and denial of cancellation rights.
POLISH OR DEMOLISH DEBATE CONTINUES Following a recent visit to the site by two senior inspectors from Historic Scotland, UKAEA and the organisation responsible for protecting Scotland's heritage have agreed to formulate a heritage strategy for the future of the iconic features of the site. Following her visit to Dounreay, Deborah Mays, head of listing for Historic Scotland, said: "There is a lot of interest in seeing the dome preserved as it is a popular landmark, but this must be balanced with the critical realities of the decontamination exercise.
The North Highland College in Dornoch will be running a National Certificate in Travel & Tourism from August 2007. Based at the Dornoch campus, the course is aimed at those interested in a career in the industry and those already working in travel and tourism who wish to improve their knowledge.
SHARING OUR KNOWLEDGE Building on our worldwide links with the nuclear industry, Neil Henderson, a safety case project manager at Dounreay, was invited by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), in conjunction with the Government of South Korea, to be part of an Operational Safety Review Team to review the Yonggwang Nuclear Power Plant, Units 5&6, in South Korea. The Yonggwang site has six pressurised water reactor units with approximately 6,000MW capacity and is operated by Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power Co.
The June 2007 site newspaper from Dounreay is available as Pdf - See: http://www.ukaea.org.uk/news/publications_dounreay_news.html .
The case for laying long distance subsea cables from renewable energy projects on Scotland's islands to areas of large population in the south is far from being clear cut under current regulation, according to a key consultants' report. The review was prepared by TNEI for island authorities together with Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) and the Scottish Executive to investigate the best options for transmitting power generated by island renewable energy projects to the mainland TNEI described the current situation as a 'Catch-22 scenario' whereby prospective renewable energy developers require confidence that they will be able to connect to the grid, but conversely, investment in grid infrastructure is reliant on securing a guaranteed level of supply.
Last week saw the attendance of twenty-three Caithness based businesses and organisations at the All-Energy renewable energy conference and exhibition in Aberdeen, the biggest such event in the UK. The two day event was attended by 4000 people from all over the world (compared to 2850 in 2006).
Thurso glassblower Ian Pearson is looking back to move forward. He has been invited to speak at the European Glassblowers Symposium to be held in Veldhoven, Netherlands in June.