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ROBOTS are being employed to help clean up Dounreay. Decommissioning bosses have turned to specialist demolition firm Brokk to supply the remotely-operated equipment that can work inside cells and a pond where radiation levels are still too high for human access. The robots - mounted on tracks like a construction excavator and powered by electricity - have been fitted with specially-designed tools. They will go inside the cells and pond to cut up and package the vessels and pipes where more than 10,000 spent fuel elements were dissolved and reprocessed before the plant shut down in 1996.

A PROBE is under way after the discovery of radioactive contamination at the site earmarked for Dounreay's new low-level waste (LLW) dump. advertising Two hot spots were detected by a monitoring team in a field just over 200 metres from the perimeter fence to the east of the former experimental fast reactor complex. More finds could hit the schedule for the ?110 million dump which is designed to take all the LLW produced by the plant and the neighbouring MOD site at Vulcan. The hot spots also raise question marks about the possible spread inland of contamination from historic operations at Dounreay. The site's multi-million-pound drive to deal with off-site pollution is focused on the seabed immediately off the plant and stretches of the surrounding coastline. The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) this week called on the site operators to review its monitoring regime in light of the latest finds. The contamination was picked up on Thursday of last week during a scheduled month-long survey of the 44-hectare site zoned for the LLW dump, which was given planning consent in April.

They want to find out why a group of workers were subjected to a higher than expected dose while moving a flask containing intermediate-level waste (ILW) on November 25. Checks are ongoing to determine the exposure levels of between six and nine workers, though it has been established they do not breach legal or site-imposed limits. The probe follows an incident in the summer when two workers had to have low-level contamination removed from their hands while working on a clean-up job in the site's sphere-shaped reactor. The two problems come in the wake of a steady improvement in both the nuclear and industrial safety record of operators, Dounreay Site Restoration Ltd. It is understood management are keen to tighten up standards in the site's Fuel Cycle Area - which houses the complex of reactor and waste stores - to maintain the recent progress. DSRL spokesman Colin Punler yesterday gave details of the latest incident.

They want to find out why a group of workers were subjected to a higher than expected dose while moving a flask containing intermediate-level waste (ILW) on November 25. Checks are ongoing to determine the exposure levels of between six and nine workers, though it has been established they do not breach legal or site-imposed limits. The probe follows an incident in the summer when two workers had to have low-level contamination removed from their hands while working on a clean-up job in the site's sphere-shaped reactor. The two problems come in the wake of a steady improvement in both the nuclear and industrial safety record of operators, Dounreay Site Restoration Ltd. It is understood management are keen to tighten up standards in the site's Fuel Cycle Area - which houses the complex of reactor and waste stores - to maintain the recent progress. DSRL spokesman Colin Punler yesterday gave details of the latest incident.