Research
Over £10 million was spent on particles research, monitoring and recovery programmes, enabling the site to begin the clean-up operation. Here you can find details of the research areas.
Laboratory testing
Dounreay Particles Advisory Group (DPAG) reports
Beach monitoring trials
Offshore remote operated vehicle testing
Offshore remote retrieval of particles
Laboratory testing
Pdf: Tests on the dissolution characteristics of 151 Dounreay particles using dilute hydrochloric acid.
Pdf: Measuremens of the density of radioactive particles using sodium polytungstate.
The Dounreay Particles Advisory Group published its Third Report on 21 November 2006. The report contains information on the source of particles and possible routes of release; their current distribution in the marine environment; the probability of a member of the public encountering a particle and; the potential implications for public health.
To view DPAG's report please click here: DPAG reports
Under the auspices of UAKEA’s Beach monitoring steering group (BMSG) trials were carried out in 2005 in Harwell on different monitoring systems for detecting particles. Alternative technologies offered by six different companies from the UK and the USA were tested for their sensitivity towards buried point sources on a simulated beach environment over a period of seven weeks in September and October 2005.
The trials followed a commitment by UKAEA to investigate a range of different technologies to see if practicable improvements could be made to the scanning of local beaches. The trials provided UKAEA with the latest information and feedback on the systems available. It compared different detectors with varying data processing techniques operating blind to find buried radioactive sources over a sand pit measuring 10 m by 6 m by 40cm deep. Non-UKAEA members of Dounreay’s beach monitoring steering group provided an independent witness to observe the trials. Performance will be compared to the current system in use, which is RWE Nukem’s Groundhog Evolution.
Four different company’s systems, including an enhanced version of the system currently in use, were selected by a panel of experts after the trials to test their performance against the current system.
Pdf press release – UKAEA shortlists four beach monitoring systems after worldwide search. 2nd August 2006.
Offshore remote operated vehicle testing
Dounreay’s investigation into offshore particles saw an improved Remote Operated Vehicle (ROV) put to test off the North coast where a comparison was made of its detection efficiency compared to divers.
The ROV, nicknamed “Trol” (Tracked Robotic Offshore Logger), was operated for UKAEA by Wick-based firm Fathoms Limited. About the size of large washing machine, it moves over the seabed at a speed of just under one mile per hour, and carries an ultrasound positioning system, two video cameras and a large sodium iodide gamma ray detector which can detect radioactive particles buried down to about 50 cm in depth.
Pdf: Offshore mapping in 2006
Pdf: Particle mapping surveys offshore to ROV in June and July 2007
Trials demonstrate remote retrieval of particles
Off shore trials during December 2007, demonstrated that removal of particles from the seabed could be carried out by a remotely operated vehicle. Following a period of competitive dialogue, two companies were chosen to deploy and demonstrate their respective remote particle retrieval system offshore off Dounreay.
Divers surveyed the seabed since 1997, mapping the extent of pollution and retrieving particles, before seabed clean-up started in 2008
.jpg&width=85&height=68)
