More Dounreay staff could work away from site, says HIE area manager
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Increasing numbers of Dounreay staff could end up doing their jobs away from the site itself, it has been suggested.
Eann Sinclair, Caithness and Sutherland area manager at Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE), pointed out that a number of employees are continuing to work from home while town centre office space is also being used.
And he predicted there will be an expansion of work carried out locally on behalf of other Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) sites.
Mr Sinclair was speaking after senior figures from HIE held a board engagement session with businesses, community groups and representative bodies from Caithness and Sutherland, looking at how they have been adapting since the start of the pandemic.
The NDA took over operations at Dounreay earlier this year.
Mr Sinclair said: “The effect of the pandemic on the Dounreay site has been similar to other organisations where large numbers of staff have been working from home. I think one of the interesting side-effects has been that Dounreay sees that as a viable way of working beyond the pandemic, and it has coincided as well with the NDA taking Dounreay back in-house, effectively, from April 1 this year.
“There will be a more stable period, I think, with Dounreay being back under public-sector ownership and control. I think it will probably mean over the next six months we'll see more information about a revised decommissioning timescale, but in the meantime we will probably see more Dounreay staff working off the Dounreay site in town centre premises – and that work has already started, because people are working from home at the moment but they are also using office space that Dounreay has acquired in the short term.
“But there is also a long-term proposition for creating accommodation off the Dounreay site somewhere in Caithness, or maybe in more than one location in Caithness – we don't know yet. And I think that's a signal that there is a long-term opportunity for nuclear services in the area, which is something we've been advocating for quite a few years.”
He added: “The fact that Dounreay is part of a multi-site Nuclear Decommissioning Authority portfolio now offers opportunities that we probably didn't have easy access to before. But in the future, and even before decommissioning at Dounreay is over, people from this area will probably be doing work based in this area for other parts of the NDA estate, and I think that's the bit that we see growing.”
HIE chief executive Charlotte Wright said: “That's a great way of preserving and developing the decades of skills that have been built up in Caithness and exactly what we'd like to see more of in terms of overall job dispersal to build on.
"If there's a positive out of the pandemic, it is people being able to work anywhere. That is actually a really great example of where we've obviously got a skill base.
“Perhaps that future has a limited horizon overall based at Dounreay, but we can continue to be a centre for nuclear skills across the rest of the UK.”
A Dounreay spokesperson said: “Throughout Covid-19, the welfare of our workforce has been our top priority.
"The site continues to follow Scottish Government guidance on workplace activity during the pandemic. About half our workforce is on-site carrying out work to progress our decommissioning mission, and about half continue to work from home.
“No decisions have been taken on future working arrangements or alternative office locations for Dounreay but, across the whole of the NDA group, we are taking this opportunity to consider how the workplace of the future might look – once restrictions have been lifted.
“Our current programme envisages completion of Dounreay’s decommissioning by the mid-2030s. This is under continuous review to take into account emerging factors, such as the Covid-19 pandemic, that have an impact on our rate of progress against targets.”
