THE safety of the decommissioning process at Scotland’s largest nuclear plant in Dounreay has been branded “deeply worrying” by leading charity bosses.
Workers at the site in Caithness have voiced “serious concerns” to managers over the safety of the procedures at the nuclear waste site. In a letter to the plant chiefs, workers reported an “increasing number of injuries” and attacked the quality of safety equipment which was available to them.
The original date for the completion of the decommissioning of the site was 2038 but was brought forward to 2025. In the letter to management it was claimed the push to meet this target was “at the expense of safe processes and practices on health, safety and welfare”.
Director of WWF Scotland, Lang Banks, said the concerns of the staff required the “urgent attention of Dounreay bosses” as well as regulators in the nuclear industry. “No employee, even those in the nuclear industry, should ever be forced to work in fear for their safety. The catalogue of safety concerns raised by staff is deeply worrying and calls into question the measures in place to protect people and the environment,” Banks said.
Banks went on to compare the situation in Dounreay with the state of the nuclear power throughout the UK as a whole, calling for a rethink on future energy plans.
“This whole situation again highlights the hazardous and expensive problem of dealing with the radioactive legacy of the nuclear industry,” he said. “Anyone who thinks that nuclear power has a role to play in our energy future needs to seriously think again.”
The letter from the staff sent last week was not the first occasion in which serious concerns have been raised about the safety of the plant.
In October 2014 a fire broke out in the plant’s Prototype Fast Reactor leading to an “unauthorised leak” of radioactivity into the wider environment. While major concerns were voiced from figures including environment secretary Richard Lochhead, the plant insisted the amount of tritium which was released did not pose a threat to the public.
Dr Richard Dixon, Director of Friends of the Earth Scotland, echoed calls for the safety of the site to be ensured, saying there was “no excuse” for cutting corners and that those running the site needed to “be more honest about what is going on at the site”.
Dixon said: “Despite the huge amount the taxpayer is paying, Dounreay continues to be dogged with accusations of safety problems and cover ups.”
“Decommissioning Dounreay is no doubt a nightmare because of the ridiculous practices and shoddy record-keeping of the past, but the safety of the workers and protecting the environment must be the absolute priorities. The work at Dounreay will help other countries around the world deal with old nuclear sites, but the continuing problems at the site demonstrate the folly of ever building new nuclear reactors,” Dixon added.
A spokesperson for the Dounreay Restoration Group, which runs the nuclear site, said: “We value the input of the trade unions and will continue to work with them as we deliver the contract to decommission the site in a safe, secure and environmentally responsible manner.”
These latest problems are unlikely to provide the PR boost nuclear energy industry chiefs have been hoping for.
Labours shadow energy minister and MP for Rutherglen, Tom Greatrex, recently announced support for further power stations in Scotland, in opposition to the SNP proposed renewable expansion. The SNP have said they will not support any further nuclear stations.
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