THE announcement of estimated accelerated dates for the clean-up at Dounreay has left many of the workers there in a state of uncertainty.
That is the view of Thurso and Wick Trades Union Council chairman Derrick Milnes, who said that the lack of detail given by the preferred contractor of the site has left employees worrying about the immediate future.
He was speaking after the Dounreay Stakeholder Group meeting in Thurso, at which Babcock Dounreay Partnership (BDP) managing director designate Roger Hardy said the consortium aimed to complete the decommissioning between 2022 and 2025.
It means work could finish up to 17 years quicker than the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) had planned. At the moment the site is working to a closure date of 2039.
Mr Milnes said he is unsure what this will mean for workers at Dounreay, saying they will only know when the contract is signed next Easter.
“The partnership has given an overview, but they are not in a position to go into any details until April,” he said.
“We’re all in a quandary about what is going on. We don’t know what is happening and it will be interesting to hold discussions with them as soon as possible.
“It’s no good for us to really push them until they are in a place to expand further on their plans. They’ve given a short overview on how they hope to move forward, but the actual facts and figures will not be released until they have signed the contract.
“We await with interest to hear what they have to say as we’ve got a number of questions we have to ask them.”
He added: “We are after further clarification of their plans for their programme of work, what the implications are for jobs at Dounreay, and if they are planning to bring in any contractors.”
The NDA announced that the Babcock Dounreay Partnership had been selected last month as preferred bidder in the competition to take over from Dounreay Site Restoration Limited.
After the contract is signed in April, Mr Hardy said that BDP will undertake a redeployment programme with DSRL staff, which may result in some redundancies.
Thereafter, BDP expects only a handful of redundancies per year until about 2019.
Larger-scale job losses are likely to take effect from 2020 onwards. BDP says it is committed to working with individual DSRL staff to support career planning. Mr Milnes said it was a surprise to hear about the accelerated clean-up dates but he knew that was part and parcel of what the new owners had contemplated.
“Babcock have been awarded the contract because they are in to do what the NDA want them to do – and that is give them value for money,” he said. “It’s difficult for us to make real comments or observations until we get a further picture on what they plan to do.
“They have already stated what the socio-economic position is but we have to work with them.
“The workforce has to do its job and we will ask pertinent questions once the programme is unveiled.
“We’ve worked closely with the management at Dounreay over the years and we intend to do the same with Babcock.”
Mr Hardy told the DSG meeting: “Most people should have job security for eight years or more.
“Having run a number of businesses, that is a pretty good position to be in. Most businesses could not offer that.”
