How we will do it

Radioactive contamination will be reduced to a level which meets the criteria for delicensing the site. This is based on “no danger”, as established by the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate under the Nuclear Installations Act 1965.

Where any radioactive substances remain on site, this will comply with the Radioactive Substances Act. On this basis, the site will be delicensed when practicable, supported by an environmental safety case acceptable to the NII and Scottish Environment Protection Agency.

Any non-radioactive contamination will be dealt with under the Contaminated Land Regulations to meet the requirement for the end use of the site and the current use of adjacent land.

De-licensing is likely to happen earlier for the south-west area of the site. The north-east area used for fuel cycle activities is likely to take longer to delicense.

Buildings and facilities will be demolished unless over-riding business cases can be made for their retention before they are decommissioned.

Contaminated building slabs, contaminated material beneath slabs and contaminated infrastructure will be removed where a case cannot be made to regulators that it is safe for these materials to remain. Wastes will be disposed of in accordance with applicable regulations.

Areas of residual contamination will be engineered to avoid unacceptable dispersal of contamination. This is likely to include isolation of infrastructure and engineered caps on the ground. This will combine with appropriate institutional control during the period when which radioactive decay reduces residual contamination.

Once restoration is complete, parts of the site will be available for appropriate further use.

Areas of the site no longer used for other purposes will be landscaped to blend with the surrounding environment and suitable surface drainage will be installed.

The physical state of land owned by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority outside of the licensed site will be addressed through the NDA’s property management strategy. The neighbouring Royal Navy facility at Vulcan is excluded from the NDA’s end state for Dounreay but has been discussed with the Ministry of Defence and Vulcan’s end state is expected to be consistent with the Dounreay end state.

Clear preference has been expressed for early shrinking of the site boundary to release land for alternative use - for example to support renewable energy development - as well as to show early tangible land restoration.

The Scottish Government's recent statement on policy for higher activity radioactive wastes has significant implications for the end states of the NDA’s sites in Scotland.

The NDA will need to consider these further with the Scottish Government but it would appear to require facilities for the storage of Scottish higher activity wastes to be in place indefinitely. Facilities for storage of such wastes (and remaining packaged nuclear material) would require licensing under the Nuclear Installations Act and so sites hosting these facilities, such as Dounreay, could not be fully de-licensed while such stores exist.

The proposed new low-level waste disposal facility may be included within a licensed area and the end state for this facility will be determined by the relevant post-closure safety case, integrated within the restoration plan for the site as a whole.
 

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