Exhibit ‘A’: Scotland’s atomic heritage on show

SIXTY years ago Caithness seemed a long way from West Lothian and employers were sympathetic to staff being sent to work at a little-known place called Dounreay.

To help them adjust, employees of building firm W & JR Watson constructing an RAF airfield during the Second World War were given a booklet – Life at Dounreay – which is one of a numbers of items now being saved for posterity as the disused nuclear plant is cleared out over the next 15 years.

The building firm’s directors apparently felt sorry for those moving to the far north. In the 1943 booklet’s introduction, they write: “We sympathise particularly with those who have been removed suddenly from a sphere of work both congenial and handy in its situation to such a site as this at Dounreay.”

The publication was later acquired by James Gunn, heritage officer at Dounreay Site Restoration, the company in charge of decommissioning the plant, which was built near the airfield.

Another artefact being saved is a metal table lighter in the shape of the Dounreay Fast Reactor dome. It was produced by construction company Motherwell Bridge, which was responsible for building the iconic building.

When the sphere underwent its final pressure and vacuum tests in 1957 the company organised a 700-mile round trip to Caithness for its workers and issued the lighters as a memento. Mr Gunn acquired one and it is currently being kept on site.

However, other items no longer needed at Dounreay are finding new uses elsewhere, or are now in museums. A box of very old and large imperial spanners rescued from a skip have found a new life with a historic steam railway.

The tools were given to the Strathspey Steam Railway at Aviemore and used on the restoration of a locomotive.

Two specialist fire engines, which were on stand-by at Dounreay for 25 years but never called into action, have also found a home. The vehicles were built for the nuclear complex in 1984 and were the only ones of their type in the world. They were given to Strathclyde Fire and Rescue Preservation Group and Caithness and Sutherland Vintage Vehicle Club.

In all, more than 70 pieces of stationery, gifts and equipment will be donated to the Caithness Horizons museum in Thurso and the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh.

A silver-plated sugar caddy, inscribed with the date 21 June 1958 and the words “Inst of Physics summer meeting at Dounreay”, was among 47 items placed with the Thurso museum.

Visitor books spanning 44 years, including one signed by the Queen Mother, as well as coasters marking the site’s 50th anniversary, sphere-shaped note-pads and a pair of Civil Nuclear Constabulary silver sergeant stripes have also been saved. As have a 1961 first edition of Reactor Magazine and a safety torch designed for use in “explosive atmospheres”.

Among the items going to the National Museum are an Edwards “Handy Tector” device for detecting helium and a monitor for picking up the radioactive gas tritium.

Mr Gunn said: “Historic Scotland and the National Museum of Scotland both recognise the historical national significance of what we have here. In 50 to 100 years’ time – when Dounreay is gone – there will be tremendous interest in these items.”