Tendering opening soon for demolition of Scottish reactor.
Companies are being invited to bid for a contract to demolish the Dounreay Materials Test Reactor (DMTR) in Scotland. A contract notice will appear in the Official Journal of the European Union for the project estimated to be worth around £7 million ($9 million) over three years. A contractor is expected to be appointed in the first half of 2018.
DMTR, which became Scotland’s first operational reactor in 1958, tested the effects of irradiation on metals and was the only reactor on the site to use heavy water instead of liquid metal as a coolant. First criticality was achieved in a test rig known as ZETR (zero energy test reactor) located alongside DMTR on 13 August 1957.
Bill Lambie, project manager at Dounreay Site Restoration Limited (DSRL), said today: “This month we celebrate the 60th anniversary of the first criticality in Scotland, which took place in a temporary test rig. This was an historic moment because it put Dounreay on the map as the UK’s centre of fast reactor research, and encouraged the local population to acquire scientific skills and abilities that have been associated with the area ever since.”
DSRL is now poised to demolish its successor and the oldest reactor on the site. Lambie said: “The removal of DMTR from the skyline will be a significant step for Dounreay, and will be a real and visible sign of the decommissioning progress being made.”
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