Renowned Dounreay engineer Jonathan Kirk dies aged 90
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A DOUNREAY engineer who worked at the plant for over 30 years has died at the age of 90.
Jonathan (Jon) Kirk, who was born in 1921, joined the Atomic Energy Authority at the Caithness site in 1956 and worked there until he officially retired in October 1986, at the age of 65.
But three years later he was back at the DFR as a consultant, using his expertise of the reactor’s operations and key components to write a new “safety case” for the facility.
In the1990s and in the first years of this century he gave a new generation of engineers, including one from his home town of Chesterfield, Derbyshire, the benefit of his professional know-how of the plant’s operations.
Mr Kirk was a Fellow of both the mechanical and electrical engineers institutes and was in international demand.
He regularly visited the United States Federal Government’s Argonne National Laboratory in Idaho, where he advised on the decommissioning of the sodium-cooled EBR 2, the second Experimental Breeder Reactor, while French companies also sought his expertise.
Mr Kirk worked in Carlisle and Manchester before moving to Dounreay. Away from work he enjoyed fly-fishing, sailing and hill-walking.
In 1967, he, his wife, Betty and daughter Helen moved to a new family home at Murkle, where Mr Kirk worked a 10-acre croft in his spare time.
His wife died in 1997.
