page_title: Dounreay
hierarchical_section_title: Dounreay
caption_attribution_description: Taken and donated by user:Guinnog
context_page_description: Dounreay is a scattered settlement with two large nuclear sites on the north coast of Caithness in the Highland area of Scotland. It is on the A836 road nine miles west of the town of Thurso. Dounreay was originally the site of Dounreay Castle and its name derives from the Gaelic for 'fort on a mound,' and consists of Upper Dounreay and Lower Dounreay.
  Lower Dounreay has been the site of two separate nuclear establishments since the 1950s; the Nuclear Power Development Establishment for the development of civil fast breeder reactors, and the Vulcan Naval Reactor Test Establishment, a submarine reactor testing facility. Most of these facilities are now being decommissioned. The establishments have been a major element in the economy of Thurso and Caithness, but this may decrease with the progress of decommissioning of the NPDE site. However an announcement in July 2020 that Nuclear Decommissioning Authority will be taking over direct management of that site from the site licence company Dounreay Site Restoration Limited in 2021, has alleviated fears of 560 job losses.
context_section_description: Dounreay (/ˌduːnˈreɪ/; Scottish Gaelic: Dùnrath) is a scattered settlement with two large nuclear sites on the north coast of Caithness in the Highland area of Scotland. It is on the A836 road nine miles west of the town of Thurso. Dounreay was originally the site of Dounreay Castle (now a ruin) and its name derives from the Gaelic for 'fort on a mound,' and consists of Upper Dounreay and Lower Dounreay.  
  Lower Dounreay has been the site of two separate nuclear establishments since the 1950s; the Nuclear Power Development Establishment (NPDE) for the development of civil fast breeder reactors, and the Vulcan Naval Reactor Test Establishment, a submarine reactor testing facility. Most of these facilities are now being decommissioned. The establishments have been a major element in the economy of Thurso and Caithness, but this may decrease with the progress of decommissioning of the NPDE site. However an announcement in July 2020 that Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) will be taking over direct management of that site from the site licence company Dounreay Site Restoration Limited (DSRL) in 2021,  has alleviated fears of 560 job losses. 
  The NPDE will enter an interim care and surveillance state by 2036, and become a brownfield site for other uses by 2336.
caption: View of site 2006.  DFR sphere at centre
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