Updated Manpower Forecasts For Decommissioning Dounreay
19th October 2006
UKAEA Dounreay today published updated figures about employment at the site and projections of reducing manpower needs as more of the fast reactor experiment is cleaned out and demolished.
The report - available on-line
here states:
Current employment levels of approximately 2000 are expected to reduce by 500 over the next five years.
Upon completion of the decommissioning programme in 2033, employment will have reduced to 23.
UKAEA is developing new plans to bring forward the completion date to somewhere in the 2020s.
The Highlands and Islands Enterprise network today announced an additional £12 million is being made available to its local enterprise company in Caithness and Sutherland to develop new employment opportunities over the next three years (see: http://www.hie.co.uk/news.htm
UKAEA Dounreay acting site director Simon Middlemas said: "There are overwhelming safety, environmental and security reasons for completing the clean-up and demolition of the site as quickly as it is safe to do so. But I recognise that closure of the site and the inevitable loss of employment in decommissioning has major social and economic consequences. That is why UKAEA, supported by our business partners AMEC and CH2MHILL, welcomes today's announcement and will continue to work closely with Caithness and Sutherland Enterprise and other partners to support the regeneration of the area's economy."
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Find out what has been happening at UKAEA in our monthly newsletter. Read about our recent activities and upcoming events.
Members were given an overview of the scale of the problem and challenges faced in the decommissioning of the site. In the last week of March 2024, several members of CoRWM led by the Chair, Sir Nigel Thrift, made the long journey up to the North of Scotland to visit the Dounreay nuclear site, now managed by Nuclear Restoration Services.
Dounreay has awarded an important waste clean-up contract to Jacobs as the site plans for the future of its deepest historic radioactive waste store. Jacobs and its supporting partners have been awarded a 6-year contract to provide a design management team to produce a fully integrated design for the shaft and silo project.
Dounreay’s radioactive impact on the environment continues to fall, according to a report. The annual survey report “Radioactivity in Food and the Environment” (RIFE 2012) has recently been published and it can be read here - http://www.sepa.org.uk/radioactive_substances/publications/rife_reports.aspx The report uses data obtained from samples of air, fresh water, grass, soil, and locally sourced meat, fish, milk and vegetables during 2012.
Dounreay today completed the destruction of one of the most hazardous legacies of Britain's earliest atomic research. A purpose-built chemical plant processed the last of 57,000 litres of liquid metal lifted from the primary cooling circuit of the experimental fast breeder reactor.
Bosses at Dounreay agreed that they won't now be spending £500,000 on a repaint of the sphere. They money saved will go instead towards actual decommissioning work.
Getting rid of Britain's 20th century experiment with fast breeder nuclear reactors is illuminating the history of human settlement on Scotland's north coast stretching back 6000 years. Archaeologists hired as part of the closure of the nuclear site at Dounreay have pieced together the legacy left by previous generations who occupied the site as long ago as 4000BC.
The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority has published the latest edition of the UK's radioactive waste inventory. This sets out the type and volumes of radioactive waste at sites such as Dounreay, as of April 1, 2010.
Cash from the closure of the fast reactor site at Dounreay is set to breed a new generation of engineers and scientists in the Scottish Highlands. The money from the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority will fund half the cost of a £50,000 project to increase the number of school-leavers skilled in science, technology, engineering and maths.
