Dounreay employees' organs tested following deaths

Published on Friday 27 April 2007 01:03

ORGANS from two former employees of the Dounreay nuclear site were taken for testing following their deaths, it emerged last night.

However, it appeared the post mortem examinations were performed with the consent of the deceased's family and at the order of a coroner, The UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) said.

The evidence regarding the 1969 and 1981 examinations will now be turned over to an inquiry ordered after revelations that tissue was removed from 65 workers at the Sellafield nuclear site after their deaths in the 1960s. The government will probe whether the removals were undertaken with proper consent.

The autopsies in question occurred during the early years of civilian nuclear technology, when the effect of radioactivity on plant workers was largely unknown. The UKAEA, which ran all Britain's nuclear research facilities until the early 70s, at which point it continued to oversee operations at Dounreay, said it permitted post mortem analysis for radioactivity at its Harwell labratory in Oxfordshire.

Last night, a spokesman for said its files suggest that proper procedure was followed in the case of the two Dounreay employees examined there.

"In both cases work was carried out at the request of a coroner to decide whether radioactivity was the cause of death and it appears that at least in the second case the family was at the inquest".