Dounreay Airfield

As would be expected, Friends of the Earth Scotland made its usual claims of the movement being dangerous, unnecessary, exposing the public to unacceptable risks, and liable to accident damage or sabotage. All it could suggest is leaving the material to lie at the site.

Although not confirmed, it is possible that a small number of highly shielded sheds may be constructed on the site, to contain 20,000 tonnes of more highly radioactive waste.

Following the magnitude 9 earthquake and subsequent tsunami which occurred in March 2011, events which combined to devastate the site of six nuclear reactors at Fukushima in Japan, DSRL was reported to have collected a van load of respirators, hand-held radiation survey kits, masks and suits, which were surplus to requirements, and donated them to help those working on the Fukushima site.[^[[http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-12911581 | BBC News - Dounreay nuclear plant donations for Fukushima]] Retrieved April 01.^]

!!!

- Dounreay reports on tsunami and earthquake resilience.[^[[http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-13280546 | BBC News - Dounreay reports on tsunami and earthquake resilience]] Retrieved 05 May 2011 15:11:03.^]

Mr Luff said it was still to be decided whether Vulcan would be reduced to care and maintenance after 2015, or go in to full decommissioning mode. In either case, there would be major cuts in the permanent workforce of 256 employed by contractors Rolls Royce, and in the work local contractors currently get at the site.


[^[[http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-15560644 | BBC News - Vulcan MoD nuclear site in Caithness could be scrapped]] Retrieved November 08, 2011 01:16:15.^] [^[[http://news.stv.tv/scotland/highlands-islands/277401-vulcan-nuclear-test-site-to-close/ | Vulcan nuclear test site to close | Highlands & Islands | STV News]] Retrieved November 08, 2011 01:16:34.^]

On 18th May 1970 the establishment was commissioned as HMS Vulcan, having previously been the Admiralty Research Test Establishment.

About this time, the establishment was commissioned as HMS Vulcan, having previously been the Admiralty Research Test Establishment.

* [[http://www.rcahms.gov.uk/pls/portal/newcanmore.newcandig_details_gis?inumlink=7320 NC96NE | 78.00 Dounreay, Nuclear Research Facility NC9876067061 ]]

>>font-style=italic class=indent<<

(:gma-map :)

'''HMS Vulcan''' was the Royal Naval Nuclear Propulsion Test and Training Establishment, until 1981, when it became the Vulcan Naval Reactor Test Establishment (NRTE).

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Dounreay
Just across the road is a brick and concrete building that housed the 'Link Trainers'. These were early flight simulators used to teach the skills of aircraft pilotage to newly qualified pilots. Further along beside the road is the gas clothing store, the first home of the Dounreay Apprentice School, and in the fields behind can be seen a few crumbling buildings of the domestic sites. Towards the western end to the left of the road stands one of the large Stand By Set Houses which housed the large diesel electric generators which supplied the site with electricity. On the hill top behind there are the remains of the radio navigation beacon, a blind flying aid to the guide aircraft in to land at night and in conditions of poor visibility.

To keep these airfields supplied with the thousands of gallons of aviation petrol they required a fuel depot was built beside the Hoy railway station near Halkirk. A rail spur was run from the main line into a compound adjacent to the track. In the compound were a pump room, office and a protected building probably a flammable store for storing oil and grease. Petrol tankers shunted into the compound would have their contents pumped up into four huge underground storage tanks in a compound on the north side of the track. Beside the pump room was a fuelling gantry where fuel bowsers from the airfields could fill up from the underground tanks to take back to the airfields and fill up their own underground storage tanks. The storage tanks were demolished many years ago but the pump-room and the protected building still stand inside the southern compound.
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Most of the airfield and its building were demolished to make way for construction of the new facility, with a few notable exceptions. One of the three original concrete runways was retained and remained in use until the 1990s (when the Government ordered the closure of the facility in 1994), to allow air movement of parts and material for the site. The wartime control tower was retained to became the Dounreay Visitor and Exhibition Centre, modified by the addition of a glass windowed observation to the upper level, where visitors could view the facility.

Three UKAEA reactors were operated at Dounreay:

!!!!Dounreay Nuclear Power Development Establishment
The Dounreay site opened in 1955 for the development of fast reactors, and three examples were constructed: the Dounreay Fast Reactor, (DFR); the Prototype Fast Reactor (PFR); and the Dounreay Materials Test Reactor (DMTR); all of which are now closed, and UKAEA work on the site is now concentrated on the decommissioning of the PFR and DFR, and the reprocessing of PFR fuel. On 1 April 2005 the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) became the owner of the site, with the UKAEA remaining as operator. Decommissioning of Dounreay is planned to bring the site to an interim care and surveillance state by 2036, and as a brownfield site by 2336, at a total cost of £2.9 billion

The total area devoted to the operation is over 1,200 acres, and the UKAEA site covers about 135 acres and employs some 1,400 people. The main occupant is AEA Technology, whose commercial activities include decommissioning, health physics, descaling of North Sea oil production pipes and the Silver II waste handling process. Other include Procord and BNFL. About £30 million per year goes into the local economy as wages and salaries. Dounreay represents 20% of Caithness GDP.

!!!!Dounreay reactor achieves criticality
>>font-style=italic class=indent<<
A chain reaction which provided sustained and controlled nuclear energy in Scotland was achieved for the first time 50 years ago. The experiment at Dounreay put the site in Caithness at the cutting edge of nuclear technology at the time. Half a century on, the plant is being decommissioned at a cost of £2.9bn. The chain reaction occurred at 1300 BST on 13 August, 1957. Supernoah, the name of the building where it happened, has been demolished. It is one of 99 facilities cleared from the 140 acre (56 hectare) site so far. Decommissioning is expected to be completed by 2033. The event at Dounreay was the first time a chain reaction had taken place in Scotland and meant nuclear power could be sustained and controlled. The area of Dounreay was farmland until 1954, when the government selected it as the location for the national centre for research and development of fast breeder reactors, a new type of atomic energy. Opened in 1955, it operated for 40 years. More recently, the mothballed plant has been dogged by the discoveries of rogue radioactive particles on nearby beaches linked to historic leaks at the complex.
>><<
->- Dounreay achieves first Scottish chain reaction, August 13, 1957.[^[[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/highlands_and_islands/6940830.stm | August 13, 1957, Dounreay achieves first Scottish chain reaction, BBC News, August 12, 2007.]]^

* [[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/highlands_and_islands/6940830.stm | August 13, 1957, Dounreay achieves first Scottish chain reaction, BBC News, August 12, 2007]]
* [[http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/uk/dounreay.htm | Description of the facilities]]
* [[http://www.ukaea.org.uk/sites/dounreay_prog_summary.htm | Decommissioning programme summary]]

!!Map
(:gma-point lat=58.578986 lon=-3.750017 text='HMS Vulcan' :)
(:mlat:58.578986:)(:mlon:-3.750017:)(:mngr6:NC983669:)

HMS Vulcan was the name given to the Nuclear Research Test Establishment until 1981, when the prefix was lost and the facility simply became Vulcan. The Vulcan Naval Reactor Test Establishment (NRTE) is a Ministry of Defence (MoD) establishment housing the prototype nuclear propulsion plants of the type operated by the Royal Navy in its submarine fleet.




----
Dounreay
Just across the road is a brick and concrete building that housed the 'Link Trainers'. These were early flight simulators used to teach the skills of aircraft pilotage to newly qualified pilots. Further along beside the road is the gas clothing store, the first home of the Dounreay Apprentice School, and in the fields behind can be seen a few crumbling buildings of the domestic sites. Towards the western end to the left of the road stands one of the large Stand By Set Houses which housed the large diesel electric generators which supplied the site with electricity. On the hill top behind there are the remains of the radio navigation beacon, a blind flying aid to the guide aircraft in to land at night and in conditions of poor visibility.

To keep these airfields supplied with the thousands of gallons of aviation petrol they required a fuel depot was built beside the Hoy railway station near Halkirk. A rail spur was run from the main line into a compound adjacent to the track. In the compound were a pump room, office and a protected building probably a flammable store for storing oil and grease. Petrol tankers shunted into the compound would have their contents pumped up into four huge underground storage tanks in a compound on the north side of the track. Beside the pump room was a fuelling gantry where fuel bowsers from the airfields could fill up from the underground tanks to take back to the airfields and fill up their own underground storage tanks. The storage tanks were demolished many years ago but the pump-room and the protected building still stand inside the southern compound.
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!!!Demolition 2007

'''Dounreay airfield''' was a World War II airfield built on the north coast of Scotland, in Caithness, for RAF Coastal Command, but never occupied by them. The site had been inspected by the command in December 1942, as an advance base for use in operations against occupied Norway.

Bomber Command declined the offer, as the airfield was unsuitable for heavy bomber operations and the site had no potential for expansion, and was also bordered by hills which were considered to be a serious hazard to flying.

Although the station remained on care and maintenance until well after the war ended and was never commissioned, it came to be known as HMS Tern II, intended to be a satellite of [[HMS Tern]] at Twatt in Orkney. Instead, the aitfield was used as a dummy and for diversions.[^[[http://www.caithness.org/caithnessfieldclub/bulletins/2002/ww2_defences_in_caithness.htm | Dounreay, World War Two Defences in Caithness.]]^]

!!Postwar development
The airfield remained on care and maintenance after World War II ended, until October 1954 when it was transferred to the Air Ministry, and then into ownership by the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA).


Although not involved in any wartime action, and eventually placed into care and maintenance in 1949, the airfield was later to contribute to the country's Cold War strategy, the development of [[Wick airfield]], and the nuclear facilities which were established at Dounreay.

The link given at the foot of this entry gives the detailed story, however, in summary:

Once the clearance was obtained, the site became home to a number of nuclear development programmes, and to [[HMS Vulcan]], the Naval Reactor Test Establishment.

The site provides an interesting definition of the Nuclear Deterrent, probably somewhat underestimated if today's revelations of the effect are to be believed, which runs as follows:

Dounreay remained one of 52 prime Soviet nuclear targets until at least 1990. To be honest, even if it had not been so, in the event of a nuclear war, few of us in Caithness would have survived. In 1980, a Russian military planner concluded that, an all-out nuclear war would result in the detonation of 14,747 nuclear devices on 1,300 Northern Hemisphere locations. Killed instantly would be 750 million people. A further 340 million wounded would have died a week later. All rainwater would become contaminated, poisoning crops and killing livestock. Famine would stalk the world, the socio-economic system would collapse, driving at least of third of all survivors mad. Within a year of the war's outbreak, 2 billion human beings would be dead, and the situation would only get worse. These statistics define the term 'nuclear deterrent'.

*The Prototype Fast Reactor (PFR) went critical in 1974, with an output of 250 MWe which was supplied to the National Grid from January 1975. The reactor was taken offline in 1994.

!!Nuclear Reactor Test Establishment

* [[http://www.internet-promotions.co.uk/archives/dounreay/coldwar2.htm | Dounreay - The Cold War connection]]

Three reactors were operated at Dounreay:

In June 2007, demolition of the Control Tower at Dounreay was reported. This followed damage to the building the previous November, caused by severe flooding which made retaining of the old structure uneconomic.

*(:gma-point (:llVgm NC9859867144 :) link='78.01 Dounreay Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor Golfball' :)

'''Dounreay airfield''' was a World War II airfield built on the north coast of Scotland for RAF Coastal Command, but never occupied by them. The site had been inspected by the command in December 1942, as an advance base for use in operations against occupied Norway.

!!Postwar developlment
The airfield remained on care and maintenance after the war ended, until October 1954 when it was transferred to the Air Ministry, and then into ownership by the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA).

(:gma-point lat=58.578986 lon=-3.750017 text='Dounreay airfield' :)
(:mlat:58.578986:)(:mlon:-3.750017:)(:mngr6:NC983669:)
(:gma-point lat=58.58042801 lon=-3.7455937  text='Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (Golfball) NC 98598 67144' :)

[[!Air Force]]
[[!Navy]]

The site provides an interesting definition of the ''Nuclear Deterrent'', probably somewhat underestimated if today's revelations of the effect are to be believed, which runs as follows:
>>font-style=italic class=indent<<

In June 2007, demolition of the Control Tower at Dounreay was reported.

In June 2007, demolition of the control tower at Dounreay was reported.

'''Dounreay''' was the site of a minor World War II '''Airfield''', known as '''HMS Tern II'''. The airfield was transferred to the Admiralty by RAF Coastal Command in 1944, as a satellite of HMS Tern at Twatt in Orkney. In the 1960s, the control tower of the former airfield was converted into the Dounreay Visitor Centre for the adjacent licensed site of the nuclear facility.

* The primary V-Bomber bases of Prestwick, Kinloss, [[(RAF)Machrihanish]], [[(RAF)Leuchars]] and Lossiemouth needed secondary runways, and Dounreay was the only one available.

* The primary V-Bomber bases of Prestwick, Kinloss, Machrihanish, Leuchars and Lossiemouth needed secondary runways, and Dounreay was the only one available.

* [[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/highlands_and_islands/6940830.stm | August 13, 1957, Dounreay achieves first Scottish chain reaction, BBC News, August 12, 2007]]

[[!Aviation]]

The site provides an interesting definition of the ''Nuclear Deterrent'', probably grossly underestimated if today's revelations of the effect are to be believed, which runs as follows:

>>font-style=italic<<

* [[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/highlands_and_islands/6940830.stm | August 13, 1957, Dounreay achieves first Scottish chain reaction, BBC News

!!Dounreay reactor achieve criticality

'''Dounreay''' was the site of a minor World War II '''airfield''', known as '''HMS Tern II'''. The airfield was transferred to the Admiralty by RAF Coastal Command in 1944, as a satellite of HMS Tern at Twatt in Orkney. In the 1960s, the control tower of the former airfield was converted into the Dounreay Visitor Centre for the adjacent licensed site of the nuclear facility.

!Links

'''Dounreay''' was the site of a minor World War II '''airfield''', known as HMS Tern II. The control tower of the former airfield houses the Dounreay visitor centre and is located next to the licensed site of the nuclear facility. The tower has served this function since the 1960s.

Although it was not involved in any wartime action, this airfield was to play a part in the post-war period, as part of the country's Cold War strategy, in the development of Dounreay's nuclear facility and also that of Wick airfield.

* The primary V-Bomber bases of Prestwick, Kinloss, Macrahanish, Leuchars and Lossiemouth needed secondaries, and Dounreay was the only available field.
* Work could not begin on the Dounreay facility until restrictions placed on UKAEA (United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority) had been agreed, giving the Air Mistry overall priority.
* By 1955, the B-52 Stratofortress had arrived, removing the need for American aircraft to refuel (in Britain, en-route to Moscow).
* The V-Bombers would able to use Wick airfield, where the runway had been extended from 4,000 ft to 6,000 ft.

'''Dounreay''' was the site of a minor wartime airfield, known as HMS Tern II. The control tower of the former airfield houses the Dounreay visitor centre and is located next to the licensed site of the nuclear facility. The tower has served this function since the 1960s.

* The primary V-Bomber bases of Prestwick, Kinloss, Macrahanish, Leuchars and Lossiemouth needed secondaries, and Dounreay was the only avaialble field.
* Work could not begin on the Dounreay facility until restrictions placed on UKAEA (United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authoruty) had been agreed, giving the Air Mistry overall priority.
* By 1955, the B-52 Stratofortress had arrived, removing the need for American aircraft to refuel (in Btitain, en-route to Moscow).

[[!Cold War]]

'''Dounreay''' was the site of a minor wartime airfield, also known as HMS Tern II.

[[!Cold War]]
[[!ToDo]]

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>>fomt-family=italic<<

Although it was not involved in any wartime action, it did play a part in the post-war period, as part of the country's Cold War strategy, and on the development of Dounreay's nuclear facility and the development of Wick airfield.

[[!Cold War]]