Dounreay clean-up turns nuclear waste into water

Published Date: 20 August 2008
By John Ross

MORE than 1,500 tonnes of radioactive material have been turned into harmless seawater as part of the clean-up of the Dounreay nuclear plant.

The liquid sodium metal is the first of the major hazards to be destroyed. It is seen as a milestone in decommissioning the Caithness plant, which is due to be returned to a greenfield site by 2025 at a cost of £2.7 billion.

Attention will now turn to cleaning out the last few tonnes of residue still inside the reactor circuits to allow the whole system to be cut up safely and disposed of.

The Prototype Fast Reactor, which operated from 1974 to 1994, had already had its fuel removed and the next stage was the destruction of 1,533 tonnes of sodium coolant in the reactor after the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate gave its consent.

Dounreay's two fast reactors were Britain's only nuclear power plants to use liquid metal.