Radioactive particles found on the seabed off Dounreay

Published on Thursday 4 June 2009 22:03

THREE radioactive particles have been recovered from the seabed near Dounreay during monitoring of the area for "hot spots".

Over the summer an area the equivalent of more than ten football pitches will be examined during the next phase of the particle recovery programme.

The work will be carried out by a locally based company, Fathoms, using a remotely operated vehicle, known as TROL, in water up to 30m deep. It will scan 75,000sq m of seabed near an old effluent discharge outlet and retrieve particles detected in the sediment.

Phil Cartwright, project manager at Dounreay Site Restoration Ltd, said:

"Our objective is to reduce the number of particles on the seabed and provide information that will assist planning of work in future years."

The results will be reviewed with the Scottish Environment Protection Agency and the independent Particles Retrieval Advisory Group, before deciding what further work may be necessary.