Nuclear Fuel
Dounreay’s purpose was to research and develop more efficient ways to generate electricity from uranium and plutonium
A variety of fuel types was tested in reactors and examined over a 40-year period. The used fuel was recycled in chemical plants and the recovered uranium and plutonium turned into new fuel elements.
The knowledge gained from this work about the properties of uranium and plutonium made Dounreay a world-leader in the development of nuclear energy for electricity production.
By 1994, when the UK Government decided Dounreay had served its purpose, the site had built up a stock of more than 100 tonnes of uranium and plutonium, much of it in a variety of specialist forms.
Some of this uranium and plutonium exists in the form of “spent fuel”. These are elements that have been irradiated in a reactor but not reprocessed to separate the fuel from the waste. Other fuel is unirradiated.
Today, most of this stock of fuel belongs to the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority and is a national asset. A small amount belongs to other countries.
Managing the fuel legacy safely and securely on behalf of the NDA is an important part of the site closure programme.
The strategy for the NDA fuel is to package it in a way that does not foreclose options for its re-use, now or at a later date.
It involves the construction of storage facilities at Dounreay for fuel that is not removed before 2025 for re-use or management elsewhere. This is the date when all the redundant facilities will have been cleared from the site.
For more information about the nuclear fuel cycle, click here.
Uranium in powder form after it has been separated from spent fuel
Archive image of staff getting spent fuel from the prototype fast reactor ready for reprocessing
Fuel elements being manfactured at Dounreay
Dounreay's fuel plants included facilities where uranium was recovered from the reprocessing of spent fuel
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