Gaseous

Radioactive waste is generated wherever nuclear materials exist. It can contaminate other materials, effluents and airflows.

Nuclear materials in their different forms are normally contained in areas of facilities where access is controlled. These can be vessels and pipes where liquors exist, ponds, storage cells for fuels and wastes and drums or containers.

An important safety feature of these areas is ventilation. Airflows that come into contact with nuclear materials have the potential to pick up airborne contamination, so plants are designed to divert this airflow away from areas where people are working.

There are approximately 50 facilities at Dounreay where airflows are partly or wholly ventilated to prevent unnecessary exposure of the workforce.

Some facilities have their own ventilation stacks while others, such as the older plants in the Fuel Cycle Area, share a common ventilation system that discharges from a 55-metre high chimney.

The ventilation system serving many of the plants in the Fuel Cycle Area is to be replaced.

The existing ventilation stack that dominates the skyline above the Fuel Cycle Area is to be replaced by two new stacks as part of an overhaul of the ventilation system in this area of the site.

 

Airflows are filtered and monitored at each facility.

Samplers attached to stacks measure the levels of activity being released and the results are reported routinely to the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA). They are also reported on this website .

SEPA sets limits on the amount of radioactivity that can be released to the atmosphere and these are specified in the site’s authorisation.

SEPA requires the site operator to monitor the environment around the site to measure the potential impact. These results are reported to SEPA and appear in the Radioactivity in Food and the Environment series of reports published annually by regulators.

The site sets lower limits on each facility and applies constant downward pressure to ensure releases are kept to a minimum.

News

Jobs joy for 100 on major ventilation contract 

 

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Image: Ducts connect many plants in the Fuel Cycle Area to a 60-metre high stack

Ducts connect many plants in the Fuel Cycle Area to a 60-metre high stack

Image:

This monitor alarms if facility limits on the stack of the low level liquid effluent treatment plant are breached

Image: Sampling point for the main stack in the Fuel Cycle Area

Sampling point for the main stack in the Fuel Cycle Area

Image: This equipment samples for tritium in the air flow from the low level liquid effluent treatment plant

This equipment samples for tritium in the air flow from the low level liquid effluent treatment plant