Dounreay dump site accused of blighting landscape
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
Deirdre Henderson, who chairs the Buldoo Residents Association, said the stunning coastal landscape has been consigned to history with the construction of a geosphere next to the licensed nuclear site.
As a result of the mounds of dirt and stone that surround the dump, residents are no longer able to look out to the sea as their view is blocked by one of the biggest construction sites in Scotland.
She believes that as a result of the work taking place and the change to the landscape, home owners will struggle to sell their properties, with the nearest home only 400 metres away from the site.
She is calling on the site operators to offer financial compensation to her and her neighbours.
Ms Henderson, who runs a croft and sub-post office at Buldoo, said the coastal scenery had been among the most spectacular in the county and was highly cherished by residents.
Now that the geosphere has been built, she said its beauty has been wiped out.
“Even with Dounreay located beside us, the environment was never heavily affected until recently,” she said. “We’ve reacted so strongly because we know what it would mean to the local environment.”
“There is a bathing pool located at the shore and the walk down to it was popular for local people and visitors alike.
“But now we have this geosphere which is several metres high and people are now no longer able to look out to the sea.
“If they want to walk along the coast they have to go around the site to get to it rather than through the fields, which takes 10 minutes longer.”
She adds: “When low-level radioactive waste is stored there, people are not going to want to go anywhere near it – it has changed everything about the area.
“It can’t be shifted as it is now a permanent part of the landscape and it is does not blend in with the local environment.
“If I tried to put my home on the market just now and they found out what the geosphere was part of, potential buyers would walk away.
“We have been affected in every single way by this development. People come up to me every day and tell me how the dump is affecting their lives and I believe everyone should be getting compensation of some sort.
“Once Dounreay is gone, we will still be here and it is us that are going to be left with the end product.”
Ms Henderson also said that blasting work during the construction of the vaults resulted in two of her ewes suffering a miscarriage when explosives were detonated at the site during the lambing season.
Irish firm Graham Construction won the contract to design and build the first phase of the facility in a £15 million deal.
Excavation work is expected to be completed by the end of the month and the first consignment of low-level waste is scheduled to be put into the vault by 2014.
The site has planning permission to build six vaults if required, but it is not known yet how many will eventually be needed.
A spokeswoman for Dounreay Site Restoration Limited said that during the planning process it undertook a rigorous environmental impact assessment process and minimised as far as is possible the impacts of the development on its nearest neighbours. However, she said that any question of compensation is for the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, which owns the site, to determine.
“We fully understand the anxieties of our neighbours about the construction of the low-level waste facilities. Dounreay has planning consent for the facilities, which are needed to enable us to close down and demolish the site and deal with the waste safely and securely.
“Impacts to lambing season from the construction activities is a frequent topic of conversation with the nearby residents. We have not been given any information that indicates the construction activities have had any impact to the number or quality of lambs as compared with previous seasons.
“We are committed to continuing our relationship with our neighbours and minimising to the extent practical disruptions from our clean-up activities.
“They are invited on regular visits to the site, and so will have the opportunity to see the landscaped areas returning to nature.”
