Socio Economics

The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority is spending up to £150 million a year to close down the Dounreay site.

It has contracted a consortium of Babcock, CH2MHILL and URS to complete this work by 2022-25, using the site licence company DSRL.

DSRL employs in the region of 900 staff at Dounreay and a similar number work in the supply chain on site closure sub-contracts.

Manpower levels are expected to remain stable until about 2020 when they will decline to a few tens of people needed to look after what remains of site beyond 2022-25.

Currently, it is estimated the programme is worth £80m a year to the economy of Caithness and Sutherland and represents more than 10% of the gross domestic product of the north Highlands of Caithness, Sutherland and Ross-shire.

The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority and its contractor recognise they have a duty to manage this decline in economic activity in a way that is sensitive to the local economy.

NDA, the Babcock partners and DSRL have developed a partnering relationship to maximise the impact of their combined resources, in line with the NDA's socio economic policy.

This will be done in two ways:

  • By leading initiatives on site to help the workforce transition to alternate economic activity, such as career planning and looking at opportunities to spin out some existing site services
     
  • By working together to support the Caithness and north Sutherland Regeneration Partnership to diversify the economic base of the area.

The NDA is a key partner within the regeneration partnership. The objective of NDA, Babcock and DSRL is to support the partnership and leave in place a legacy of economic activity that ensures the area can prosper beyond site closure.

DSRL has produced a socio-economic strategy and each year produces a socio economic plan for approval by NDA. This sets out the scope of work we intend to undertake and funded by NDA as part of the site lifetime plan.

Across the UK, Caithness and North Sutherland is one of four priority geographical areas for the NDA, which has produced a socio economic priority area plan for Caithness and North Sutherland.

 
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