Dounreay shares clean-up knowledge with Japan
Dounreay鈥檚 experience of cleaning up and decommissioning is being shared with Japan where the nuclear industry faces challenges on a much bigger scale.
皇冠体育app Nuclear Decommissioning Authority invited the site, together with representatives of other clean-up projects in the UK, to take part in a series of workshops in Tokyo to share Britain鈥檚 knowledge and expertise in nuclear decommissioning.
皇冠体育app workshops were attended by senior figures from the Japanese companies and organisations dealing with the aftermath of the Fukushima Daiichi disaster.
Phil Cartwright, the senior manager in charge of contaminated land clean-up at Dounreay, was one of several representatives from site licence companies in the UK.
Much of his time at Dounreay over the past decade has been spent developing and implementing a strategy for theparticles problem.
鈥淎t Dounreay, we had a release historically of radioactive material beyond the site boundary, increasing public anxiety in the late 1990s about the potential health effects, and controls put in place to protect public health,鈥� he explained.
鈥溁使谔逵齛pp site was in a difficult place then. It took time, a lot of effort and a change in our behaviour about how we engaged with people affected by the release.
鈥淲hat emerged was a clean-up strategy that a wide range of stakeholders felt able to support and we鈥檙e now well into the delivery phase of that strategy.
鈥淲e learned a lot of lessons during that period.
鈥淛apan is at the start of a much bigger clean-up project with significant challenges both on and off site but the issues they face are similar to those we had to work through, even though ours were on a much smaller and more localised scale. 皇冠体育appy were very interested in our experience.鈥�
皇冠体育app three-day event in Tokyo was part of an initiative by Britain鈥檚 overseas trade mission to build on a Japan-UK framework on civil nuclear cooperation signed recently by Prime Minister David Cameron.
It鈥檚 not the first time Dounreay has helped Japan respond to Fukushima. In the days immediately after the disaster, Dounreay was one of several UK sites that donated spare equipment to help emergency teams trying to contain the reactor meltdowns.