Risk from Dounreay waste dump 'negligible' says site operator Magnox
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Dounreay's operators have held their hands up to dumping clinical waste at a local landfill site.
Magnox Ltd has launched a probe into how material used for personnel monitoring ended up being buried at the Seater tip.
Describing the risk as "negligible", the site licence company says it has taken steps to prevent a recurrence.
The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) is also investigating how four bags containing "hazardous clinical waste" were accidentally taken from the former nuclear plant for disposal at the Bower dump on March 17.
By the time the gaffe was discovered three days later, the material could not be recovered as the disposal area had been capped over.
A Dounreay spokesperson said: "We have carried out an investigation and identified a number of improvement actions to prevent this from reoccurring.
"The consignment consisted of secondary wastes arising from our routine personnel monitoring and analytical assay procedures and, whilst categorised as clinical waste, the risk from this consignment is considered negligible."
The spokesperson added: "Safety, security and the protection of the environment is our highest priority and we will continue to work closely with our regulators ensuring that we achieve this."
Former Caithness Highland councillor Gillian Coghill, who chairs the site restoration sub-group of Dounreay Stakeholder Group, said: "This is an ongoing investigation which Sepa are working on and we're waiting to hear back from them.
"I think it is down to human error but it is something that needs to be investigated so it will hopefully never happen again."
Magnox Ltd took over the Dounreay nuclear site licence from DSRL at the start of last month.
On March 16, Sepa carried out an inspection of Dounreay's waste management licence and gave it a clean bill of health.
