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"For more than half a century the futuristic dome of Dounreay nuclear power station has stood as one of the most iconic - and intimidating - coastal landmarks in Scotland. Now, despite last-ditch rescue attempts, it seems the imposing and eye-catching structure is doomed to be removed from the Caithness landscape forever. Although Dounreay is now defunct and set to be decommissioned, a public consultation over the future of the monumental structure has come up with a series of strange suggestions designed to save the building."

"Safety at the Dounreay nuclear plant continues to improve, according to the bosses of the company leading the clean-up of the Caithness complex. In their annual report, the directors of Dounreay Site Restoration Limited (DSRL) said no time was lost through accidents between March 2009-10. They said the low dosages of radiation workers were exposed to also underlined the priority given to safety. Two workers were exposed to radiation last July. "

A BAN on seafood coming from an area near the Dounreay nuclear site is to stay in place, following a Food Standards Agency review. The restriction, preventing the removal of fish and shellfish from a 2km exclusion zone, was imposed in 1997 after the discovery of radioactive particles on the seabed. The order, under the Food and Environment Protection Act, was to ensure any seafood contaminated by irradiated nuclear fuel did not enter the food chain. Last year, Dounreay began work using remotely operated vehicles to remove the worst of the particles that have caused concern for more than quarter of a century. Up to £25 million will be spent on covering an area the size of 60 football pitches and on monitoring up to the 2020s.

"The company leading the decommissioning of Dounreay has awarded contracts totalling more than £12m to three firms for the next stage of the project. NDSL, Nuvia and Morson International will supply 70 staff to dismantle plant and machinery in some of the most hazardous areas of the Caithness site. They will wear special suits as protection against radiation. Dounreay Site Restoration Limited (DSRL) said the contracts should help it save millions of pounds. "

The £1.99 household product Cillit Bang is being used to help clean plutonium stains at the defunct Dounreay nuclear power plant in Caithness. Dounreay Site Restoration Limited (DSRL) said it would help reduce the £2.6bn cost of dismantling the site. The cleaner's use has also drawn interest from operators of other nuclear sites in the UK. A different domestic product has already been applied in the cleaning of contaminated glass tubes.

"An investigation has been launched following a fire at the Dounreay nuclear plant in Caithness. Fire alarms alerted the site's firefighters to the blaze at the Prototype Fast Reactor (PFR) at about 0040 BST on Friday. The fire involved sodium which had earlier been removed from pipe work and stored in a small tented enclosure. Dounreay Site Restoration Limited (DSRL) said the fire was extinguished. The company, which is l"

Amec has been chosen by Czech utility CEZ to manage radioactive waste at a nuclear power plant in Dukovany for the coming five years. Amec's Slovakian business will manage the contract, which already provides a range of services to nuclear power plants in the Slovak and Czech republics. Commenting on the contract win, Amec's managing director of its Slovakian nuclear division, Pavol Stuller, said: "This important contract confirms Amec's position as an important partner to both CEZ and ENEL in the area of radioactive waste management in the Central and Eastern European region". Amec says it will reduce the volume of liquid radioactive waste at the Dukovany plant, thereby cutting the cost of waste management. Earlier this month, Amec announced it was partnering with Energy Solutions in a bid to be appointed "parent body organisation" at Dounreay in north west Scotland. The decommissioning of Dounreay is one of the UK nuclear industry's most significant challenges, with Amec and Energy Solutions claiming that their joint venture would offer "unrivalled experience" and, thus, "the right recipe of global skills, experience, capabilities and culture to safely deliver the desired solution for Dounreay"."

"A FRESH trawl of waters off Dounreay will get under way next month to recover more rogue radioactive fragments. A robot mounted on a bespoke subsea assembly is being mobilised to detect and then retrieve some of the hottest of the reactor fuel particles. The operation is part of Dounreay Site Restoration Ltd's attempt to tackle the legacy of radioactive pollution caused by sloppy historic waste practices at the site. A major part of its strategy is to target the seabed near the site's original sea effluent plant. This area - the size of 10 football pitches - is thought to contain the 1500 to 2000 particles deemed to pose a significant health hazard. Last year, a robot recovered 64 particles, including 13 in the significant category."

The number of radioactive particles from Dounreay threatening to contaminate a public beach two miles from the plant is six times greater than previously thought, according to experts. The Dounreay Particles Advisory Group, which advises the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) on the hundreds of thousands of particles believed to have been dispersed from the Caithness plant in the early-1960s, said that around 400 or 500 particles were extending into Sandside Bay on the north coast.

WORK to remove one of the most persistent problems affecting the clean-up of the Dounreay nuclear site has begun beneath the waves off Caithness. A remotely operated vehicle is combing the seabed to find the worst of the radioactive particles that have caused concern for more than quarter of a century. Up to £25 million will be spent on covering an area the size of 60 football pitches and on monitoring up to the 2020s.

HE cost of maintaining the Dounreay nuclear plant since 2000 has climbed above £1 billion. Malcolm Wicks, the energy minister, said the actual costs since then amounted to £1.145 billion and the bill last year was £137.5 million.

Two small areas of radioactive contamination have been detected during a survey of grazing land adjacent to the former nuclear research site at Dounreay. They were excavated and removed to the site for analysis. One was identified as a 'minor' particle of fast reactor fuel and the other as soil contaminated with radioactivity. The finds were 5-30cm below the surface and covered by vegetation, indicating they are most likely to be historic in origin. Dounreay Site Restoration Ltd is carrying out an investigation. The Scottish Environment Protection Agency has been informed. The field where the contamination was detected forms part of a 44-hectare site zoned for the construction of a disposal facility for low-level waste from the decommissioning and closure of the site.Previously, this area was earmarked for construction of the European Demonstration Reprocessing Plant. The survey is to establish a baseline of radioactivity levels prior to the start of construction of the low level waste facility. The survey is due for completion by the end of August.

Bidders for nuclear work are gearing up to fight for a multibillion pound contract to manage the clean-up of the Dounreay site on the northern coast of Scotland On Monday, the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority issued a tender seeking a consortium to oversee the restoration operation at the derelict site, which contains three former nuclear reactors. The programme is valued at about £3.6bn. The Pentland Alliance is regarded as the frontrunner for the job. Members of this consortium, which includes Amec, CH2M Hill and the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA), have been seconded to senior posts at Dounreay over the past three years. However, in a surprise move last week, the commercial arm of UKAEA chose engineer Babcock International rather than Amec to be its buyer, which raised questions about the future of the Pentland Alliance. However, it is thought that the consortium will continue.

NUCLEAR weapons-grade uranium, given up for lost at the Dounreay plant in Caithness, has been found during the clean-up at the sprawling site, it has been revealed. A team of specialists found 1.5kg of the highly radioactive material over the past year during an operation to repackage waste at the site. Some of the material was found in drums filled with waste and other small particles were found in the "nooks and crannies" of previously inaccessible equipment. Three years ago, an official government report revealed that 238g of highly enriched uranium - the material used to make nuclear weapons - was unaccounted for at the Caithness nuclear facility.

NUCLEAR weapons-grade uranium, given up for lost at the Dounreay plant in Caithness, has been found during the clean-up at the sprawling site, it has been revealed. A team of specialists found 1.5kg of the highly radioactive material over the past year during an operation to repackage waste at the site. Some of the material was found in drums filled with waste and other small particles were found in the "nooks and crannies" of previously inaccessible equipment. Three years ago, an official government report revealed that 238g of highly enriched uranium - the material used to make nuclear weapons - was unaccounted for at the Caithness nuclear facility.

An emergency planning zone around a former nuclear power station in Caithness has been reduced from three miles to less than one. The smaller area circling Dounreay has five neighbouring households within its boundary, instead of more than 200. The zone is covered by detailed plans to deal with the worst-case radiation emergency that can be "reasonably foreseen". Dounreay said the reduction reflected a lower risk posed by the site.

A SCOTTISH Government minister yesterday visited Dounreay to witness the dismantling of the plants that once supported Britain's nuclear research programme. Richard Lochhead, the minister for rural affairs and the environment, spent time at the Caithness site to see for himself how waste from the shutdown and clean-up of Scotland's biggest nuclear site is being managed.

A small amount of nuclear waste described as a 'shovel full' has been uncovered on the Scottish coast. The waste was found during clean up works to pave the way for the planned Dounreay low level waste facility on the northern tip of Scotland. It's the first and, so far, only nuclear waste to be dug up at the site, which is currently undergoing a remediation by Dounreay Site Restoration Limited (DSRL). The site was formerly a centre of fast reactor research and development, which was used for various nuclear testing between the mid 1950s to the mid 1990s.

* £50m sale 'good value for taxpayers', says Mandelson * Opposition warns against further decommissioning levies Dounreay nuclear power station. It was shut in 1993 but its safety and decommissioning will now fall into the hands of private firm Babcock. Photograph: Murdo MacLeod The body responsible for decommissioning and cleaning up Britain's fleet of nuclear power stations was sold today in the latest privatisation of part of the UK's nuclear industry. UKAEA, the commercial arm of the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority, has been bought by Babcock International Group for £50m. Business secretary Lord Mandelson claimed the deal "generates good value for taxpayers", but opposition politicians have previously voiced concerns over the sale.

Dounreay today publishes the findings of its investigation into the discovery of a radioactive particle in land adjacent to the licensed site. The investigation report has been distributed to the land-user and nearby residents following its submission to the Scottish Environment Protection Agency. It can be downloaded here. An investigation was carried out into the discovery of contamination during a survey last month of the off-site area designated for development as a repository for low level radioactive waste from the site decommissioning. One find was determined to be a 'minor' DFR particle and the second was found to be a disperse area of radioactive contamination containing caesium. From expert advice neither of the finds poses a health risk. Both of the finds were well below the ground surface indicating they have been there for 10 years or longer. The reason for the contamination at this location was not definitively determined.

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.