The Dounreay site in North Scotland is undergoing decommissioning and waste management to achieve a safe and sustainable Site End State – the final condition for the restored land. Since 2006 work has been ongoing to develop the optimal Site End State, taking account of the waste and contamination that needs to be dealt with.

Regulatory guidance issued in 2018 (the Guidance on Requirements for Release from Radioactive Substances Regulation, GRR) broadens the range of waste management options that can be considered as part of a site’s End State and clarifies the environmental safety requirements that need to be fulfilled. This guidance therefore provided an important basis for the project.

The site was split into 15 ‘key components’ (specific facilities and some areas of land). For each key component, End State options were assessed qualitatively in a workshop against criteria (health and safety, environment, socio-economic impacts, finance) derived from NDA guidance. The component options were subsequently combined to form a set of site-wide End State options, which were agreed with stakeholders and then compared to select the best overall option. It was key that this best performing option worked both for the site as a whole, as well as for individual facilities and areas of the site.

The collaborating team combined Dounreay’s knowledge of site, consultants' expertise and experience in options studies, NDA oversight of end state work at Dounreay and other UK sites, and the views of key stakeholders in Dounreay site’s future.

Emma Rhodes presented a poster on this work titled ‘Re-defining the Dounreay Site End States’ at year’s Waste Management Symposia Conference in Phoenix, Arizona. A paper of the same title was also submitted to the conference.