Inventory
Forty years of research and development into more efficient ways to generate electricity from uranium and plutonium generated a variety of different types of fuel at Dounreay. Much of this in a specialist form.
When the research and development work came to an end in 1994, the programme had accumulated just over 100 tonnes of fuel on the site. Today, keeping this fuel safe and secure during the decommissioning is an integral part of the site clean-up programme.
This inventory belongs to the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority and is a national asset.
It contains both irradiated fuel and unirradiated fuel.
Less than seven tonnes currently belongs to historic customers who entered into commercial agreements during the 1980s and 1990s for the reworking of their fuel at Dounreay. The site no longer operates facilities to rework this fuel, so DSRL is in discussion about exchanging this fuel for equivalent products from stock to close out these contracts.
| Fuel Type | % of inventory |
| DFR breeder | 41 |
| natural/depleted uranium | 21 |
| irradiated plutonium bearing materials | 12 |
| unirradiated plutonium bearing materials | 10 |
| miscellaneous (on and off-site) | 10 |
| carbide | 6 |
Detailed information about specific fuel, its composition and precise location is withheld for security reasons.
Click here for guidance on the release of information about nuclear fuel.
Workers were shielded by thick windows from the hazardous radiation of spent fuel
Archive image of the research reactor fuel reprocessing plant
Spent nuclear fuel being disassembled for reprocessing
Taken in the 1970s, this picture shows the caves where fuel from the Prototype Fast Reactor was examined after being removed from the reactor
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