THE first roof beams have been lifted into place as part of the project the decommissioning project at Dounreay.
Local firm, Hugh Simpson, is contracted by GRAHAM Construction to store, transport and install the beams at the former nuclear site.
In the first phase of works, 31 beams weighing between 25 and 45 tonnes each were transport to site by four extendable trailer articulated lorries.
They were then lifted into place using the existing on-site 250-tonne crane and a 500-tonne mobile crane.
A total of 76 beams are required to complete all the works, with them already having been manufactured in Ireland shipped to Scrabster in August.
Dounreay’s programme delivery director, William Lindsay, said, “It is a logistical challenge to get these roof beams into place, at height, in a congested site, and has required a significant amount of planning to achieve the first of a three-phase installation sequence.”
The works represent the largest nuclear decommissioning project in Scotland, with the UK Government saying Dounreay is ‘widely recognised’ as one of Europe’s most complex nuclear closure programmes.
In 2020, the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority said that it would be 2333 before the 148-acre site is able to be reused safely.
