Dounreay nuclear station was in operation between 1955 and 1994 and houses two fast breeder reactors and one thermal research reactor, along with fabrication and reprocessing facilities. Next to it is a military nuclear establishment with two reactors for submarine developments, in operation between 1965 and 2015. Taken together, there are no less than five reactors located directly on the dramatic shore of Scotland’s northern tip, where the North Sea meats the Atlantic Ocean and create some of the most dangerous water fairways in the world.
During the second week of September, about fifteen scholars and heritage professionals, among them NUCLEARWATERS’ Anna Storm, met in Dounreay and the nearby town of Thurso to engage with the legacies of the nuclear establishment, among them a flourishing community life but also severe contamination problems. The liquid radioactive waste produced by the nuclear research experiments was often simply discharged into the sea through an underwater pipe, while the solid residues were dumped into a deep shaft on site, originally stemming from the building of the emission pipe. After an explosion in the 1970s, it was acknowledged that the shaft was not an acceptable storage, not least since it was unlined and open to ground water flows.
All transportation to and from the Dounreay site go through the nearby Scrabster harbour. Scrabster has a long fishing tradition and remains one of the top landing ports in the UK for whitefish and shellfish, including brown crab, lobsters, prawns and scallops. During our visit, trucks went in shuttle service to customers southward, not only in the UK but on the European continent. Around the Dounreay nuclear site however, there is an effective fishing prohibition for a radius of two kilometers, and the levels of contamination at the closest beach of Reay are still unclear.
NUCLEAR WATERS 