Home   News   Article

US and UK complete project to remove highly enriched uranium


By Staff Reporter- NOSN

Easier access to your trusted, local news. Subscribe to a digital package and support local news publishing.



Click here to sign up to our free newsletters!

WORK to transfer around 700kg of highly enriched uranium (HEU) from Dounreay to America has been completed in what is being hailed as an important milestone for the clean-up of the Caithness site.

The HEU transfer, carried out by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) and the US Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), was announced by the UK Government as part of its commitment to the 2016 Nuclear Security Summit held in Washington.

Dounreay decommissioning is expected to be completed between 2030 and 2033. Picture: NDA
Dounreay decommissioning is expected to be completed between 2030 and 2033. Picture: NDA

NDA chief executive David Peattie thanked the staff from Dounreay Site Restoration Limited who co-ordinated the moves, counterparts from the US Department of Energy and the other agencies involved with moving the material for their commitment and hard work.

He said: “The successful completion of the complex work to transfer HEU is an important milestone in the programme to decommission and clean up Dounreay.”

The HEU will be "down-blended" in the US to be used as fuel in civil nuclear reactors for peaceful purposes.

The US is sending a different form of the material to Europe, where it will be used as research reactor fuel and in the production of medical isotopes.

Lisa E Gordon-Hagerty, DOE under-secretary for nuclear security and NNSA administrator, said: “This joint effort highlights our strong co-operation and mutual non-proliferation goals."

Highly enriched uranium, from various research and development programmes, was used at Dounreay prior to the end of site operations in the 1990s. Originally, the material was set to be transferred to Sellafield as part of the NDA’s consolidation strategy.

Contracts worth an estimated £400 million were awarded by Dounreay recently as part of the ongoing decommissioning of the site. The work, which will last four years initially but could be extended for an additional three, will include major projects such as the demolition of historic laboratories and the retrieval of radioactive waste from the shaft and silo.

The decommissioning of the site is expected to be completed between 2030 and 2033.


Do you want to respond to this article? If so, click here to submit your thoughts and they may be published in print.



This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse the site you are agreeing to our use of cookies - Learn More