Dounreay dome done for as £2.7bn clean-up seals site for 300 years

Published on Thursday 16 September 2010 14:00

FOR more than half a century the Dounreay dome has stood as a symbol of the impact the nuclear industry has had on the far north of Scotland.

• The Caithness plant under construction in the 1950s and, below, as the site was before decommissioning began Picture: Chris Bacon

But the landmark is set to disappear from the Caithness skyline after the site is decommissioned, a new heritage strategy has confirmed.

Some of Dounreay's buildings, including the sphere, still contain nuclear and chemical hazards and will be retained in the short term.

But the 80-page strategy rules out their preservation once the hazards have been removed and the buildings rendered safe.

It also says the 150-acre site itself is likely to remain out of bounds to the public for almost 300 years after it has been decommissioned by 2032 at a cost of 2.7 billion.

Dounreay Site Restoration Ltd (DSRL) will now work with an advisory panel drawn from Historic Scotland, the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland, National Museums Scotland and the Caithness Horizons museum to identify and preserve aspects of the site, including historical records and photographs, interviews with workers and uncontaminated items of technology.

Other ideas that will be explored include an international conference on nuclear heritage, a national exhibition dedicated to Dounreay, an academic study of the site's significance and a lasting memorial to the site.

In a foreword to the strategy, Malcolm Cooper, chief inspector of Historic Scotland, said: "There is much to celebrate and to study - from its inception to the decommissioned site - in the fields of history, science and social geography.

"It seems entirely fitting to us that the spirit of innovation that underpinned the development of the reactors at Dounreay remains at the site, both in terms of the decommissioning programme and in particular in terms of developing new approaches to deciding how best to celebrate and commemorate such a key site."

The experimental Dounreay Fast Reactor (DFR) was built in the 1950s and in 1962 it was the first fast-breeder reactor in the world to produce electricity for public consumption.

Its future has been subject to debate for some years and there had been some support for retaining the familiar sphere.

This was found to be prohibitively expensive, however. Painting the dome every ten years costs 500,000 alone. Demolishing it after a clean-out of radioactive and chemical contamination would cost 13.7 million.Maintaining it over the next decade would cost an estimated 10.1m, but the sphere support structure and adjacent buildings would need replacing after ten years for a projected cost of up to 35m.

Simon Middlemass, DSRL managing director, said: "Many of the remaining (Dounreay] properties, including the sphere, continue to perform important roles in the containment of nuclear hazards until we can complete their decommissioning.

"But many are rotten with radioactivity and, despite extensive soul-searching and consultation, we've not been able to identify any practical proposal for their retention."

The sphere is likely to be one of the last facilities to be removed, with its deconstruction expected to take nine to 12 months to complete.

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