Dounreay

Site of the world's first fast nuclear reactor on the north coast of Scotland, in the Highland unitary authority, 13 km/8 mi west of Thurso. The first nuclear reactor, the Dounreay Fast Reactor (DFR), was active from 1959 until 1977. A second nuclear reactor, the Prototype Fast Reactor (PFR), was active between 1974 and 1994. The site became a nuclear reprocessing plant after the closure of the second reactor. In 2001 the UK government decided to end reprocessing at Dounreay, and the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) began the process of decommissioning the site. Environmental campaigners welcomed the move, as they had raised concerns over the site's possible detrimental impact on the environment.

The Dounreay site had caused offshore contamination in the 1960s and 1970s as used nuclear fuel was cropped in a machine that generated radioactive particles. In 1977 there was an explosion at the site in an underground shaft used to dispose of contaminated waste. In 1996 a radioactive leak in the main dissolver in the reprocessing plant made the plant inoperable, and in 2001 a decision was taken to begin the decommissioning of the nuclear reprocessing plant. Fishing was banned in the Dounreay area in 1997 due to contamination.