Warning letter issued to Dounreay over fire at laundry
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Dounreay's operators DSRL have been rapped following a small fire at the site's laundry earlier this year.
The incident prompted a probe by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa), the site's internal regulator.
Sepa found the outbreak in March was caused by a filter within the laundry's air supply catching fire.
Sepa's Dounreay-based inspector Stewart Ballantine said: "Although there was no harm to the environment as a result of the failure to install the filter, our investigation into the circumstances concluded that DSRL had contravened conditions of its EASR (Environmental Authorisations (Scotland) Regulations) radioactive substances authorisation.
"In line with Sepa’s enforcement policy, (it) has issued the site with a warning letter."
A DSRL spokesman said: "Remedial work was carried out to the laundry after a filter ignited.
"We discovered deficiencies in the work to modify the system and also the control of the restart.
"We informed Sepa and these deficiencies resulted in a warning letter.
"The deficiencies have been corrected and the learning from this episode shared widely across the site. There was no harm to the environment."
DSRL is meanwhile continuing its work to respond to a leak of radioactive hydrogen at a chemical waste plant where highly volatile sodium is stored.
The incident on April 20 has been classed as an "anomaly" on the International Nuclear Event Scale.
Sepa has been investigating the causes of the leak of tritium from a storage tank at the prototype fast reactor complex.
DSRL has been working to safely access the tank to take samples in order to underpin its assessment of the discharge via an unauthorised and unmonitored route.
Sepa has issued DSRL with an information notice requiring reports by September 2024 detailing a review of the tank drainage and liquid monitoring arrangements.
Mr Ballantine said: "Any further enforcement action will be determined by the outcome of our investigation."
The incident led to formal investigations by both Sepa and its off-site "policeman", the Office of Nuclear Regulation.
A DSRL spokesman said: "The recovery plan for the sodium tank farm event continues with routine information being shared with both regulators.
"The formal updates are continuing against the required timescales.
"Our investigation identified a number of factors. These covered technical, organisational and culture issues. We continue to work across a number of topics as a priority.
"We want to have confidence in our own delivery of the highest standards of safety and environmental protection, and then to demonstrate this to regulators who have placed hold points on work to resume sodium disposal operations."
