News story

Dounreay lends a hand to the Highlands

Dounreay site in the north of Scotland has joined in with the coordinated effort across the NDA group by placing all resources, not considered essential to the safety and security of the site, at the disposal of Highland Council and NHS Highland.

Dounreay site in the north of Scotland

Dounreay site in the north of Scotland

Staff at the site, near Thurso in Caithness, that have required skills and experience are also being made available to work on projects which are helping the region’s response to the Covid-19 outbreak.

A £30,000 donation has been made to the North Highland Initiative to support community initiatives to support vulnerable individuals, and a donation has been made to Wick Food Bank for purchase of freezers.

All the site’s PPE stocks, except that which is essential to the continued safety and security of the site, have been made available to the NHS and a member of the team from the site is working with NHS Highland to support patient assessment centre at Caithness General Hospital.

Managing Director Mark Rouse said:

We have reduced operations at the site to a level where we require a minimum number of people to leave their homes each day to keep Dounreay in a safe and secure state.

For years, we have planned for an emergency that relied upon the community coming to our aid. Now we are working with partners from the Highland Council, NHS and other local organisations in their hour of need to offer support wherever we can. We’ve been able to help in a number of ways already. We are committed to doing whatever we can to provide further help in the days and weeks ahead.

Published 21 April 2020