Extra cash for Dounreay decommissioning plans

EXTRA money is being given this year for the ongoing work to close down the redundant Dounreay nuclear plant.

The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) had capped the amount to be spent on decommissioning the Caithness site at 150 million a year.

However, it has increased funding this year to up to 159m as a low-level waste facility is being built at Dounreay.

The NDA has set out the clean-up priorities at sites including Dounreay over the next 12 months and beyond in a new business plan which will cost 2.9 billion.

Government funding will cover 2bn, with the balance coming from income from commercial operations.

Key tasks at Dounreay this year include the start of the low-level waste disposal facility, the first nuclear waste dump built in Scotland for nearly 60 years.

Dounreay Site Restoration Ltd recently announced the formal award of a contract to build the facility to County Down-based Graham Construction, which has offices in Edinburgh and Glasgow.

The firm will build the first two of a possible six underground vaults capable of taking up 175,000 cubic metres of radioactive debris from the demolition of Dounreay's reactors.

Work is due to start in October and the first vault is due to open in 2013.