Dounreay officials order shake-up of key safety jobs
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Your support makes all the difference.MANAGERS at the Dounreay nuclear reprocessing facility have thrown the privatisation of staff jobs into reverse, after a series of potentially disastrous incidents in recent weeks.
The shake-up, involving more than 60 key jobs overseeing and ensuring safety, shows that the UK Atomic Energy Authority - which operates Dounreay - is under increasing pressure to raise safety standards, with inspection visits due next month from the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (NII) and MPs concerned that the plant has become an unsafe liability.
Dr Roy Nelson, the site director, said yesterday in a letter to all 1,400 staff that "none of us should be complacent about our safety performance" and admitted that "some of the criticism [of recent events at Dounreay] is deserved".
The changes include siting six extra radiation protection advisers on the coastal site near Caithness, northern Scotland, transferring 20 managers from privatised contractors to the full-time staff of the site, and hiring 40 more people to work in engineering.
Dounreay has come under the microscope since the Government volunteered it to reprocess spent reactor fuel from the former Soviet republic of Georgia. Since then there have been a number of accidents, including a major power failure when a mechanical digger cut through the main power cable and the emergency back-up power system failed to take over.
Managers at the site have been criticised over the latter incident because they waited for an hour before declaring an emergency.
The plant, which opened in 1954 to produce plutonium for Britain's weapons programme, has suffered a series of safety lapses - the most dramatic coming in 1974, when material in an underground storage shaft exploded, blowing off a concrete plug. Making it safe, the aim of an ongoing project, will cost at least pounds 400m.
Dr Nelson made it clear that "UKAEA has already decided that a stronger in-house management team is desirable", and that privatisation of senior posts will be reversed after 2001, when its contract with consultants WS Atkins ends.
Dr Nelson said: "We must learn lessons from past mistakes and take remedial action promptly where we can see that it will help." He added: "Safe and responsible operations at Dounreay will only be achieved with the full commitment of everyone on site".
The NII inspection will be one of the most exhaustive ever performed.
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