Dounreay, on Scotland’s northern coast, is run by a private sector consortium led by Cavendish Nuclear
(
Rex Features
)
The decommissioning of one of the UK’s most significant nuclear power stations has run into serious problems after workers responsible for disposing of radioactive waste accused their managers of failing to keep them safe.
Staff at Dounreay, on Scotland’s northern coast, have written to the site’s managing director, Mark Rouse, to raise concerns about decommissioning process.
The letter, seen by The Independent on Sunday, says workers have reported an “increasing number of injuries” and have “serious concerns” about the quality of new protective suits and other safety equipment. And they have “no confidence in senior management”.
The letter was sent to Mr Rouse last November, six weeks after a fire at the plant resulted in a serious radioactive leak. Staff warn that the situation at Dounreay is now similar to that of the mid-1990s, when a major safety audit had to be carried out.
Later this week Mr Rouse and a senior executive from the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) will address the Dounreay Stakeholder Group, but the problems will add to growing concerns around the UK’s multi-billion pound nuclear clean-up industry.
In pictures: Chernobyl's forgotten victims
Show all 25
In pictures: Chernobyl's forgotten victims
1/25 Chernobyl's forgotten victims
An elderly lady wanders into the Exclusion Zone at an informal crossing point between officially contaminated and officially ‘clean’ space. Radiation is not stopped by the fence, and nor are people.
Alexey Furman
2/25 Chernobyl's forgotten victims
A young girl plays on her grandparent’s small farm near the edge of the nuclear Exclusion Zone. Growing your own food is an important survival strategy for people who live near Chernobyl, despite the risk of contamination.
Thom Davies
3/25 Chernobyl's forgotten victims
In a village near the Exclusion Zone, a woman holds a photograph of her husband who worked as a liquidator after the 1986 Chernobyl accident. He died soon after the disaster, and she attributes this to exposure to harmful levels of radiation. With no support from the State, she says that the government have “cheated us all the time”.
Thom Davies
4/25 Chernobyl's forgotten victims
An elderly widow holds a photograph of her husband who worked as a liquidator after Chernobyl and died from exposure to harmful radiation.
Alexey Furman
5/25 Chernobyl's forgotten victims
An elderly woman stands in her house in a village that borders the Exclusion Zone in north-central Ukraine. A photograph of deposed former President Victor Yanukovich and opposition politician Klitschko are stuck to the wall.
Alexey Furman
6/25 Chernobyl's forgotten victims
A Soviet War memorial near the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. This landscape has witnessed a lot of suffering with heavy fighting during WW2, as well as acts of atrocity against the Jewish population. The invisible danger of radiation is a less tangible threat, with one war veteran comparing the two traumatic experiences: “At least when the Nazis were in my village you could see them”.
Alexey Furman
7/25 Chernobyl's forgotten victims
A man holds the blue and yellow flag of Ukraine at a memorial to the Chernobyl catastrophe in downtown Kiev. This weekend marks the 28th anniversary of the world’s worst nuclear accident. As my friend Arthur Bondar said yesterday “Ukrainians and Russians once saved the world from radiation together. Lets save the world now from a new war and commemorate all the victims of Chernobyl”
Alexey Furman
8/25 Chernobyl's forgotten victims
A man walks past a memorial in Chernobyl
Thom Davies
9/25 Chernobyl's forgotten victims
A man and his dog stare through the barbed wire fence into the forbidden space of the Exclusion Zone. Many people subsidize their income by illegally entering the Zone to collect scrap metal, which they can then sell. Local border police patrol the fence and occasionally arrest trespassers or demand the payment of bribes.
Thom Davies
10/25 Chernobyl's forgotten victims
It is common for people to wander through the forbidden forest of the Exclusion Zone to gather wild food such as berries and mushrooms, or to hunt for wild game. Food is both eaten their families and sold informally. Untouched by human activity – apart from invisible radiation - the Exclusion Zone has become a haven for wildlife.
Thom Davies
11/25 Chernobyl's forgotten victims
The infamous damaged nuclear reactor at Chernobyl. In 1986 a combination of human error and bad reactor design caused a nuclear meltdown that would impact so many people’s lives. A new gigantic sarcophagus is currently being constructed to cover the old reactor and stop further radiation leaks.
Thom Davies
12/25 Chernobyl's forgotten victims
Aleksander worked for years as a liquidator and driver inside the nuclear Exclusion Zone. He shared many stories about life on the edge of the Zone, and how he would never leave the landscape he grew up in. He once told me “the USSR is something that is now invisible, it is just a concept, where as Chernobyl is everything that you can touch, that you can see, that you can feel”. Aleksander died last year.
Thom Davies
13/25 Chernobyl's forgotten victims
A man in Stari Sakoli village stands in his field. In the background the Exclusion Zone can be seen beyond the trees.
Alexey Furman
14/25 Chernobyl's forgotten victims
Alcohol for sale in a shop near the Exclusion Zone. Alcoholism is a big problem in this region, as it is elsewhere in Ukraine. With one in four people in Ukraine struggling below the poverty line and an uncertain future - many men turn to drink. Some here believe it protects them from radiation.
Alexey Furman
15/25 Chernobyl's forgotten victims
A woman in Krasilivka village cuts grass using a traditional scythe, near the Chernobyl Zone.
Alexey Furman
16/25 Chernobyl's forgotten victims
An elderly lady who lives near Chernobyl cries while remembering events that followed the disaster. Many people have personal stories of loss and tragedy relating to Chernobyl.
Alexey Furman
17/25 Chernobyl's forgotten victims
Two mothers and their children wait at a bus stop just west of the Exclusion Zone. There are very few jobs or investment in the region, and little compensation for having to live on contaminated land. With nearly one in four people in Ukraine below the poverty line, and the IMF demanding benefit cuts, life for people near Chernobyl is getting harder.
Thom Davies
18/25 Chernobyl's forgotten victims
A babushka stands on her small plot of land in a village near Chernobyl. Immediately after the accident the authorities advised people not to eat a variety of homegrown produce, but the Ukrainian State only gives a tiny amount of compensation each month ‘to buy clean food’. Despite the threat of pollution, people here remain very attached to their land.
Alexey Furman
19/25 Chernobyl's forgotten victims
Kids kill time in Orane village, five kilometers from the Exclusion Zone. There are few jobs or prospects for young people in this marginalized region.
Alexey Furman
20/25 Chernobyl's forgotten victims
Chernobyl campaigner Sergey Petrovych Krasilnikov holds a photograph of the damaged nuclear reactor in his flat in Kiev. He attributes his disability to radiation from the accident, having been in a wheelchair since the early 1990s. Many people feel abandoned by the state, and do not get paid the compensation that they are owed by Ukrainian law.
Alexey Furman
21/25 Chernobyl's forgotten victims
Children in a school in Orane village, 5km from the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. Each year some children are taken abroad for a month by charities for ‘Chernobyl Children’ based in Spain. As a result, most kids in Orane speak some Spanish.
Alexey Furman
22/25 Chernobyl's forgotten victims
Five residents of a village near the Exclusion Zone in Ukraine watch the world go by. All of them attribute Chernobyl radiation to a wide range of illnesses from cancer to diabetes, as well as personal stories of loss and bereavement. The number of fatalities from the nuclear disaster is highly debated.
Alexey Furman
23/25 Chernobyl's forgotten victims
A liquidator holds her medal awarded to her after she helped clean up the highly polluted landscape around Chernobyl after the accident. Despite having the correct documents, many liquidators still fail to receive the compensation that is owed to them.
Thom Davies
24/25 Chernobyl's forgotten victims
A boy who lives in a village that borders the Exclusion Zone plays in a river that runs through the contaminated territory of Chernobyl.
Thom Davies
25/25 Chernobyl's forgotten victims
A baby is christened in the only functioning Church in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. After the ceremony the priest said “There is no radiation here”
Alexey Furman
1/25 Chernobyl's forgotten victims
An elderly lady wanders into the Exclusion Zone at an informal crossing point between officially contaminated and officially ‘clean’ space. Radiation is not stopped by the fence, and nor are people.
Alexey Furman
2/25 Chernobyl's forgotten victims
A young girl plays on her grandparent’s small farm near the edge of the nuclear Exclusion Zone. Growing your own food is an important survival strategy for people who live near Chernobyl, despite the risk of contamination.
Thom Davies
3/25 Chernobyl's forgotten victims
In a village near the Exclusion Zone, a woman holds a photograph of her husband who worked as a liquidator after the 1986 Chernobyl accident. He died soon after the disaster, and she attributes this to exposure to harmful levels of radiation. With no support from the State, she says that the government have “cheated us all the time”.
Thom Davies
4/25 Chernobyl's forgotten victims
An elderly widow holds a photograph of her husband who worked as a liquidator after Chernobyl and died from exposure to harmful radiation.
Alexey Furman
5/25 Chernobyl's forgotten victims
An elderly woman stands in her house in a village that borders the Exclusion Zone in north-central Ukraine. A photograph of deposed former President Victor Yanukovich and opposition politician Klitschko are stuck to the wall.
Alexey Furman
6/25 Chernobyl's forgotten victims
A Soviet War memorial near the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. This landscape has witnessed a lot of suffering with heavy fighting during WW2, as well as acts of atrocity against the Jewish population. The invisible danger of radiation is a less tangible threat, with one war veteran comparing the two traumatic experiences: “At least when the Nazis were in my village you could see them”.
Alexey Furman
7/25 Chernobyl's forgotten victims
A man holds the blue and yellow flag of Ukraine at a memorial to the Chernobyl catastrophe in downtown Kiev. This weekend marks the 28th anniversary of the world’s worst nuclear accident. As my friend Arthur Bondar said yesterday “Ukrainians and Russians once saved the world from radiation together. Lets save the world now from a new war and commemorate all the victims of Chernobyl”
Alexey Furman
8/25 Chernobyl's forgotten victims
A man walks past a memorial in Chernobyl
Thom Davies
9/25 Chernobyl's forgotten victims
A man and his dog stare through the barbed wire fence into the forbidden space of the Exclusion Zone. Many people subsidize their income by illegally entering the Zone to collect scrap metal, which they can then sell. Local border police patrol the fence and occasionally arrest trespassers or demand the payment of bribes.
Thom Davies
10/25 Chernobyl's forgotten victims
It is common for people to wander through the forbidden forest of the Exclusion Zone to gather wild food such as berries and mushrooms, or to hunt for wild game. Food is both eaten their families and sold informally. Untouched by human activity – apart from invisible radiation - the Exclusion Zone has become a haven for wildlife.
Thom Davies
11/25 Chernobyl's forgotten victims
The infamous damaged nuclear reactor at Chernobyl. In 1986 a combination of human error and bad reactor design caused a nuclear meltdown that would impact so many people’s lives. A new gigantic sarcophagus is currently being constructed to cover the old reactor and stop further radiation leaks.
Thom Davies
12/25 Chernobyl's forgotten victims
Aleksander worked for years as a liquidator and driver inside the nuclear Exclusion Zone. He shared many stories about life on the edge of the Zone, and how he would never leave the landscape he grew up in. He once told me “the USSR is something that is now invisible, it is just a concept, where as Chernobyl is everything that you can touch, that you can see, that you can feel”. Aleksander died last year.
Thom Davies
13/25 Chernobyl's forgotten victims
A man in Stari Sakoli village stands in his field. In the background the Exclusion Zone can be seen beyond the trees.
Alexey Furman
14/25 Chernobyl's forgotten victims
Alcohol for sale in a shop near the Exclusion Zone. Alcoholism is a big problem in this region, as it is elsewhere in Ukraine. With one in four people in Ukraine struggling below the poverty line and an uncertain future - many men turn to drink. Some here believe it protects them from radiation.
Alexey Furman
15/25 Chernobyl's forgotten victims
A woman in Krasilivka village cuts grass using a traditional scythe, near the Chernobyl Zone.
Alexey Furman
16/25 Chernobyl's forgotten victims
An elderly lady who lives near Chernobyl cries while remembering events that followed the disaster. Many people have personal stories of loss and tragedy relating to Chernobyl.
Alexey Furman
17/25 Chernobyl's forgotten victims
Two mothers and their children wait at a bus stop just west of the Exclusion Zone. There are very few jobs or investment in the region, and little compensation for having to live on contaminated land. With nearly one in four people in Ukraine below the poverty line, and the IMF demanding benefit cuts, life for people near Chernobyl is getting harder.
Thom Davies
18/25 Chernobyl's forgotten victims
A babushka stands on her small plot of land in a village near Chernobyl. Immediately after the accident the authorities advised people not to eat a variety of homegrown produce, but the Ukrainian State only gives a tiny amount of compensation each month ‘to buy clean food’. Despite the threat of pollution, people here remain very attached to their land.
Alexey Furman
19/25 Chernobyl's forgotten victims
Kids kill time in Orane village, five kilometers from the Exclusion Zone. There are few jobs or prospects for young people in this marginalized region.
Alexey Furman
20/25 Chernobyl's forgotten victims
Chernobyl campaigner Sergey Petrovych Krasilnikov holds a photograph of the damaged nuclear reactor in his flat in Kiev. He attributes his disability to radiation from the accident, having been in a wheelchair since the early 1990s. Many people feel abandoned by the state, and do not get paid the compensation that they are owed by Ukrainian law.
Alexey Furman
21/25 Chernobyl's forgotten victims
Children in a school in Orane village, 5km from the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. Each year some children are taken abroad for a month by charities for ‘Chernobyl Children’ based in Spain. As a result, most kids in Orane speak some Spanish.
Alexey Furman
22/25 Chernobyl's forgotten victims
Five residents of a village near the Exclusion Zone in Ukraine watch the world go by. All of them attribute Chernobyl radiation to a wide range of illnesses from cancer to diabetes, as well as personal stories of loss and bereavement. The number of fatalities from the nuclear disaster is highly debated.
Alexey Furman
23/25 Chernobyl's forgotten victims
A liquidator holds her medal awarded to her after she helped clean up the highly polluted landscape around Chernobyl after the accident. Despite having the correct documents, many liquidators still fail to receive the compensation that is owed to them.
Thom Davies
24/25 Chernobyl's forgotten victims
A boy who lives in a village that borders the Exclusion Zone plays in a river that runs through the contaminated territory of Chernobyl.
Thom Davies
25/25 Chernobyl's forgotten victims
A baby is christened in the only functioning Church in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. After the ceremony the priest said “There is no radiation here”
Alexey Furman
Earlier this month, the National Audit Office reported that the cost of decommissioning and cleaning up the Sellafield nuclear site in Cumbria has increased by £5bn to £53bn. The private sector consortium responsible for Sellafield was sacked in January.
In September, it emerged that the overall cost of cleaning up Britain’s toxic nuclear sites has risen by £6bn, from an estimated £63bn over the next century to £69bn. The Government and regulators have been accused of “incompetence”.
John Clarke, NDA’s chief executive, will also address Dounreay’s workers to assure them that the issues at Sellafield will not be repeated. Dounreay is run by a private-sector consortium led by Cavendish Nuclear, a division of Babcock International.
At a hearing in front of MPs last week, Mr Clarke admitted “there have been some feathers ruffled” at Dounreay due to a “very aggressive programme of work”, with staff angry about their contracts ending earlier than originally planned, in 2025 rather than 2038. Caithness MP John Thurso called on the regulator to make similarly paid jobs available for workers once decontamination is completed. “If people think they have another job to go to, then they’re going to work harder to end the job they are on,” he said.
The workers’ letter claims that the focus on delivery has been “at the expense of safe processes and practices on health, safety and welfare”. A union source said workers had been “confused and demoralised”, but that relations with management had started to improve. Fears over the protective outfits, known as airline suits, were allayed when workers were told how to store and handle them properly.
A spokesman for the NDA said the regulator had been “proactive in raising its concerns about environmental, health and safety trends at Dounreay”.
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Independent Minds Comments can be posted by members of our membership scheme, Independent Minds. It allows our most engaged readers to debate the big issues, share their own experiences, discuss real-world solutions, and more. Our journalists will try to respond by joining the threads when they can to create a true meeting of independent minds. The most insightful comments on all subjects will be published daily in dedicated articles. You can also choose to be emailed when someone replies to your comment.
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