Atomics

Highlights the significance of Dounreay to the nation in being the UK's centre for research and development into nuclear fast reactorsDetails how it affected a small and remote rural community, particularly the market town of Thurso, CaithnessPublished to mark the 70th anniversary of DounreayThe UK Government’s 1954decision, made without any community consultation or public inquiry, to centrethe country’s fast reactor R&D nuclear programme at Dounreay’s disusedmilitary airfield in Caithness, changed the fishing and farming county forever. Around 1,100 workers, labelledby the locals as ‘Atomics’, arrived from the South, and joined around 1,200locals to operate three nuclear reactors. In one fell swoop, the continualdepopulation of Caithness was reversed and Thurso’s population trebled from3,200 to over 9,000 in only eight years. In1988, the Government decided that fast reactor technology was not required andthe last reactor was shut down in 1994. The world-leading pioneering work lefta legacy of radioactively-contaminated facilities and environment. Thechallenging work programme of clean-up, decommissioning and demolition will extendto the 2070s, and so Caithness and North Sutherland have time to prepare forlife after Dounreay. Whateverthe future holds, enjoy the 70-year journey and discover how the incomersbecame labelled as the ‘Atomics’.