Dounreay Bulletin Issue 4

13th June 2006

£3.8M CLEAN-UP PLANT COMES INTO SERVICE
A £3.8 million plant has commenced active commissioning ready to clean up effluent from the next phase of decommissioning Dounreay's Prototype Fast Reactor. The new plant will clean up effluent that comes from the dismantling of the old effluent treatment plant, decontamination of redundant components from PFR and the liquid effluent from the buffer store pond. See: http://www.ukaea.org.uk/news/2006/26_05_06.html

VESSEL CONTENTS ARE CONTAINED INSIDE CELL
On June 8, a routine daily check of two small storage vessels located inside a sealed cell in a redundant fuel facility awaiting decommissioning found that the contents of one of the vessels had leaked. An estimated 4.5 litres of liquid waste - a legacy of the former role in fuel research of the Marshall Laboratory - had leaked from the vessel, which is similar in size to a fire extinguisher. The waste was contained safely inside the cell, as it was designed to do, and there was no discharge to the environment or exposure of staff. The liquid was cleaned up and transferred to other containers. The other tank is being drained as a precaution while the cause of the vessel failure is investigated. Corrosion of pipework is suspected. The liquid is due to be cemented up as intermediate-level waste as part of the clean-out and decommissioning of the facility.

Jimmy Quinn, decommissioning project manager for the Marshall Laboratory, said: "While the spillage of the waste liquor posed no hazard to the general public, the workers or the environment, an event such as this underlines the importance of accelerating the decommissioning effort and making the wastes passively safe for long-term storage or disposal at the earliest possible opportunity."

LAUNDRY PLANNING APPLICATION APPROVED
Highland Council has granted planning permission for the construction of a new laundry at Dounreay. The existing laundry needs to be demolished to make for way for a proposed new waste treatment plant that will immobilise liquid wastes and encapsulate solid waste from the legacy of reprocessing fast reactor fuel for storage.

The £30,000 contract for ground work and to build foundations has been awarded, following a tendering exercise, to local building contractor J. Begg. This is the first contract J. Begg has been awarded on the site, although they have been sub-contracted in the past to work on other projects. The profile metal sheeting kit has been made and will be constructed in-house.

Eric Green, UKAEA project manager, said: "The building of the new laundry is a major step in the enabling works for the new waste handling facility. The existing laundry doesn't meet modern environmental standards, so the building of a new facility is the most cost-effective method of meeting these standards."

DOUNREAY HOSTS INDUSTRY SHOWCASE
Scotland's premier trade event for suppliers to the nuclear decommissioning industry took place at Dounreay on May 25. Nearly 60 companies exhibited in Technology 2006 in a temporary marquee erected next to the site. It was officially opened by John Farquhar, regional director of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority.
See: http://www.ukaea.org.uk/news/2006/25_05_06.html

NDA BACKS COMMUNITY ENERGY PILOT
Ambitious plans to regenerate a Caithness community by harvesting energy from the sun, wind and hydrogen are to receive financial support from the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority. The NDA, through UKAEA, is to invest £60,000 over the next three years to help Ormlie Community Association Ltd develop its green energy scheme. It will support the appointment of Thurso engineer, Louise Smith, who also chairs the Caithness Renewable Energy Forum, as project manager. She returned to the area two years ago, previously working for Jacobs Babtie on UKAEA projects.
See: http://www.ukaea.org.uk/news/2006/23_05_06.html

NEW MANAGEMENT MEETS THE NEIGHBOURS
Dounreay was the venue for an informal get-together on June 7 so that the site's neighbours could meet representatives of the new UKAEA, AMEC and CH2MHILL management team at the site. A similar event involving the wider local community is planned for later in the year.

DOUNREAY STAKEHOLDER GROUP
The next meeting of Dounreay Stakeholder Group takes place in the Pentland Hotel, Thurso, at 7pm on Wednesday, June 14. Papers for the meeting can be found at http://www.dounreaystakeholdergroup.org


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ALKALI METALS SPECIALIST HELPS SOUTHERN UKAEA SITE
Dounreay's Dr Jonathan Morgan, a specialist in alkali metals, travelled to UKAEA's most southern site to provide alkali metals handling training. He presented the courses to 10 delegates - six from UKAEA, two from Nuclear Decommissioning Services Ltd (NDSL) and two from Top Flight Tasking (TFT).

At Winfrith there is a substantial inventory of sodium, all resulting from past tests and experiments in support of the fast reactor project. The training consisted of two half-day classroom-based sessions, running through the usual course material and practical demonstrations. Dr Morgan also examined the contractor's safety case and working documentation and emphasised the key sodium handling points. With the co-operation of the building management, Dr Morgan was also able to lay on a practical demonstration of the safety aspects of handling sodium. Also with the co-operation of the Winfrith Emergency Services, all delegates were able to use a powder extinguisher applicator, the sort used for extinguishing alkali metal fires

Dr Morgan said: "Appreciation of the hazards and means of handling sodium is essential for the decommissioning of UKAEA's sites and programme delivery. Providing this training in-house not only reduced costs, but also allowed us to share our knowledge and experience with our colleagues at the Winfrith site."

SITE-WIDE EMERGENCY EXERCISE
Dounreay normally runs about 12 different exercises each year to test its preparedness for dealing with an emergency. On Wednesday, May 17, the annual site-wide exercise took place. Most personnel took part in the exercise, which was based on a notional accident in a waste facility. The exercise was witnessed by officials from the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate, who deemed it an "adequate demonstration" of the site's emergency arrangements. Other external organisations observing the event included police and fire services.

DOUNREAY RECORDS WILL APPEAR ON KEW
The most important document in the National Archives in Kew, Surrey, is the Domesday Book. Now, 920 years after it was first compiled it will shortly be joined by a number of documents from Dounreay, the first time papers relating to its history have gone directly from site.

A number of documents relating to Dounreay but previously held in Risley, once the headquarters of UKAEA Northern Division, are already archived in Kew. Ian Pearson and his staff in the Dounreay Records office selected some 300 documents for scrutiny by two officials of the National Archives, Adam Bigg and Andrew Dyer, who recently visited the site. "We are interested in documents that relate to what was the site's core business, fast reactor development," said Adam. "In particular, we are interested in the innovative scientific and technical work that was carried out at Dounreay, and in particular the decision making process of that work. This will be of great benefit to the historian." Andrew Dyer said that despite some 10 million entries the in the National Archives, technical histories do not feature to a great extent. "This is because most scientific and technical information is already in the public domain," said Andrew. "However, around ninety per-cent of what we scrutinised today at Dounreay is of such historical and scientific importance we consider it worthy of archiving."

The National Archives, formed in 2003 from the amalgamation of the Public Records Office and the Historical Manuscripts Commission, employs 500 people and receives the equivalent of a kilometre of documents every year!

ASSISTANCE TO LOCAL GROUPS
Dounreay has provided financial assistance to two Wick organisations. Caithness Mental Health Support Group has received assistance towards a new computer and internet access, and Norlin Playgroup, based at North Primary School, received support towards replacement items following flooding of their premises in December. Meanwhile, Thurso Bay Raft Race got off to a good start this year with the donation of £150 from Dounreay. The race on June 3 was won by a team from Vulcan.


AT A GLANCE
Number of days since a lost time accident - 35 days
(No. of man-hours since a lost time accident - 482,510 hours)
On May 9, a worker injured his back during construction of the new low-level waste store
Liquid metal destroyed in decommissioning Prototype Fast Reactor

Volume: 1136 tonnes
Percentage complete: 75 %


NB Plant currently shut down while major reactor components are jacked up out of their seal.

Research reactor high active liquor conditioned as solid intermediate-level waste

Total no. of drums to date: 1,879
Percentage complete to date: 37.6%
Conditioned in current financial year: 105m3
NB Plant currently shut down while spillage is cleaned up.


Solid Low Level Waste processed for disposal
Total so far this financial year: 1,313 drums


Employment levels
UKAEA - Full Time Equivalents
April 1,172
May 1,173
June 1,160

Sub-contractors - number of personal passes
April 1,236
May 1,220
June 1,206

Sub-contractors - number of gate-held passes
April 232
May 232
June 179