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View Full Version : Response to Atkins Report; situation report.



John Little
21-Jan-11, 18:16
I’m not really posting this to start a discussion because I do not wish to distract from Phill's thread, but to give information to interested parties.

I want to update people as to where we have arrived in relation to a response to the document that a group of us prepared. As you may recall, we were unhappy with the report on the Dounreay Sphere prepared by Atkins Heritage and we challenged its findings with a response.

Our response was completed by the beginning of November 2010 and we sent it out to the main protagonists as we saw them then; since then it has received a wider dissemination to anyone we thought might listen.

However it is the main players that this post relates to.

Our report was sent to Atkins Global at the beginning of November. They sent no acknowledgement. We know that they have it because there is a large number of hits from Atkins on the Dounreay Dome’s website which our group set up.

Atkins have not responded to our document at all.



We also sent our response to DSRL.

They acknowledged receipt of it.

They also invited us up to Dounreay to discuss it. As I pointed out, we could not do that – we all work full time and in most cases live far away from Dounreay. We are not corporate bosses who can just drop or delegate everything so it was not a very realistic proposition. And certainly not an answer to what we have said.

Our points are simple enough.

All DSRL have to do is refute what we have said on four points.
That the radioactive parts of the Sphere are to be removed anyway.
That the Sphere can be decontaminated to an internationally recognised safe standard – and indeed will be.
That the Sphere can be accessed.
That the cost of painting it when put to commercial tender is far less than that given inside the industry.

Why we should have to come to Dounreay to get answers to those points eludes me.

It seems to me that if they do not owe us answers then they certainly owe them to the local community- if not to the nation.

As to what is written in our response document, we have received no reply at all.



We sent our document to the Enquiries team at NDA.
“The NDA is the owner of the Dounreay site, but is not the parent body of Dounreay Site Restoration Limited. The United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority Limited (UKAEA) is the current parent body of Dounreay Site Restoration Limited (DSRL)
was the reply.
They passed it to DSRL. I have since found that DSRL answer to NDA under Vince Cable and have sent our response to both the Chairman and Chief executive of NDA. And to Vince Cable.


As to what is written in our response document, we have received no response at all.

We sent our response to Historic Scotland. Their position is clear. It is informed by the position of NDA and DSRL. They cannot respond to our document.
In the current situation their position has to be that there is no viable future for the Sphere under the current planning situation.


As to what is written in our response document, we have received no response at all.


In this case it is understandable. I would not really expect a response from HS.

However, the situation at the moment is that we have had no response from anyone whatsoever concerning what we have said in our report.

Nor do I think that one will be coming. Simply because what we have said cannot be refuted.

If it can be refuted then let them do so.

If not then their £88,000 ‘Heritage Report’ will stand more utterly discredited than it does now.