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Insight Newsletter
Edition 8 - February 2012 (3Mb)
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Construction work has now started on a series of underground vaults that will house up to a quarter of a million tonnes of low-level radioactive waste arising from the gradual demolition of Dounreay.
The new facility is the first of its type to built in Scotland and the first ever to be granted planning permission.
In a £13 million contract, construction company GRAHAM Construction is expected to take two years to develop the first two of up to six vaults, creating up to 100 construction jobs. Subject to regulatory clearance, waste disposal is due to begin in 2014.
The first turf was cut on Friday by Rob Gibson, MSP for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross.
| £4 million fund for community projects |
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A community benefit package of £4 million was agreed as one of the planning conditions for the facility, which will be aimed at supporting local community-led projects.
Launched just before construction started, the funds have been provided by the NDA and will be available in the form of grants between £1,000-£30,000, for projects in the Dounreay travel-to-work area.
To administer the funds, an independent company, Caithness & North Sutherland Fund Ltd, has been set up comprising local community representatives and councillors, with observer status for the NDA and DSRL. The arrangement also allows the fund to accept money from other sources.
Anna MacConnell, NDA's Stakeholder Relations and Socio Economic Manager, said: "The NDA has been closely involved with some important socio-economic contributions to the area such as the harbours at Wick and Scrabster and work with North Highland College to develop the engineering skills centre. We see the Community Benefit Fund as part of the NDA's wider contribution to socio-economics and an intervention that can perhaps help out in areas that our funding has been unable to in the past - helping amenity and recreation projects such as sports facilities, community centres and playgrounds for the children perhaps.
Caithness & North Sutherland is a priority area for the NDA and we will continue to support economic development projects – our drive to help the Regeneration Partnership to secure new jobs in the area does not change because of the Community Benefit Fund."
A website www.cnsf.org.uk has been created which contains all the information and downloads required to submit applications. |
Nigel Lowe, NDA's director for Dounreay, said: "Dounreay was at the forefront of the country's reactor programme when it was first built. Today, as the site opens a new chapter in its history, it is again at the forefront as exemplified by this low-level waste construction project. This facility will ensure the material is safely and securely looked after well into the future, utilising modern standards and technologies."
Audrey Cooper, senior project manager at Dounreay Site Restoration Ltd, said: "Cleaning out and knocking down a redundant site like Dounreay generates significant quantities of radioactive waste. This facility provides us with a safe disposal route for much of that waste.
"It is the culmination of a decade of work to identify the best option for looking after this type of waste and obtain the necessary planning consents."
Low-level waste (LLW) typically consists of debris such as metal, plastics and rags contaminated during the clean-out and demolition of facilities where radioactive materials were handled.
By volume, LLW represents more than 80% of all the radioactive waste generated by Dounreay's demolition. By radiological hazard, however, it represents less than 0.01%.
The waste is collected in 200-litre drums, which are compressed to a fifth of the size and placed inside half-height shipping containers. These containers will be filled with grout to make them ready for disposal.
Each vault covers an area the size of a football pitch and is 20 metres deep. An agricultural-style building will be built to provide cover during its operation, before each is finally backfilled with grout and capped.
The last disposals are expected to occur some time in the next decade. After capping, it will monitored for 300 years, by when 95% of the radioactivity will have decayed.
