Another Years Decommissioning Progress At Dounreay
31st July 2007
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.
The report outlines the key decommissioning achievements during the year as well as safety, environmental and financial indicators, and summarises the performance-based incentives that are used by the NDA to measure delivery and award fee. During the year, the site delivered £164 million worth of work for the sum of £146 million.
Twenty-two buildings were demolished; the first heavily-shielded cell was decommissioned and dismantled; work to create containment around the intermediate level waste shaft continued; and over 115 tonnes of sodium were destroyed. Clean-up and dismantling work generated 3,576 drums of solid low-level radioactive waste that were processed for disposal.
There were 3 lost time accidents during a total of 4.3 million hours worked, which was a significant improvement in the site's safety performance. The highest radiation dose received by a member of staff was 2.04 mSv (out of a statutory annual limit of 20mSv), and the average radiation dose was 0.06 mSv. Discharges of radioactivity to the environment remained within the authorised limits. Nineteen radioactive particles were detected during monitoring of over five million square metres of local beaches.
Recycling increased considerably last year compared to previous years. The site recycled 34.8 tonnes of paper and over 300 tonnes of scrap metal.
Dounreay Director Simon Middlemas said that there were many reasons why the workforce should be proud of its achievements during the last year. "We have carried out work more efficiently than predicted, which has enabled us to bring forward projects from future years," he explained. "At the same time our safety and environmental performance has improved greatly, something we can be justly proud of. With this level of commitment and capability by the entire team at Dounreay, including our sub contractors, it sends exactly the right message to attract other businesses into the
area for the future prosperity of the North of Scotland."
Hard copies can be obtained from the Communications Department, Dounreay (tel: 01847 806080). Dounreay Review 2006/07 can be downloaded on UKAEA's website - http://www.ukaea.org.uk/downloads/dounreay/Dounreay_Review_2006_07.pdf
Related Businesses
Related Articles
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.
The clearance of tens of thousands of tonnes of radioactive waste from the redundant nuclear site at Dounreay today moved a step closer. Dounreay Site Restoration Ltd announced the formal award of a contract to develop a disposal site for low-level waste from the decommissioning and closure of the site.