Letter: Save the dome

I SEE Dounreay is to lose its dome when reclamation of the site is completed. It is an iconic structure and should be kept as a memorial of a remarkable achievement when Scotland led the world in nuclear technology.

A fog of obfuscation has been stirred up as justification for the demolition, and it centres on fears of radioactive contamination to the dome and the area round it.

As an independent expert could tell you, it is perfectly possible to clean and decontaminate the dome. Yet a supposedly independent report done for the company reclaiming the site allows no flexibility in their demolition plans because of contamination. This report, which is less than satisfactory in its conclusions, has been accepted in its entirety by Historic Scotland, who are thus absolved from doing anything.

To keep the dome as a memorial would cost 500,000 every ten years or so as it has to be painted. I can quite easily see why retaining it is inconvenient. Yet no sources of funding for this seem to have been explored.

My own opinion is that the reason Scotland's dome, the first nuclear fast reactor building in the world, is being demolished is because of financial concerns and nothing more. Rather than demolition, this dome should be protected, listed and made a World Heritage site. To demolish it would be an act of vandalism.

(Dr) JOHN LITTLE

Middle Quarter

High Halden, Kent