Dounreay dome paint job arrangements in 'final stages'

Dounreay's operators say they are in the final stages of arranging a paint job on one of the site's best-known buildings.

The "golf ball" contained the world's first fast breeder reactor and is known by other nicknames, including the "dome" and "sphere".

Nuclear Restoration Services (NRS) advertised for painters last year but the work on the contract, worth between £500,000 and £1m and due to start this month, has still to begin.

The lower part of the structure is to be painted light green, but eventually the sphere is to be demolished along with other buildings at the complex near Thurso.

The paint helps to protect the metal sphere from corrosion.

NRS said painting the 135ft (41m) diameter structure would be complicated.

A spokesperson said: "Our commitment to protecting workers and the environment during reactor decommissioning includes maintaining the integrity of the sphere and treating areas affected by weathering until it can be dismantled.

"Its shape and the abutment of other buildings requires complex scaffolding and access arrangements."

Dounreay, on the north Caithness coast, was established 70 years ago as an experimental nuclear power site.

In 1962, the fast reactor inside the dome was the first in the world to provide electricity to a national grid.

Enough power was generated for a small town.

The reactor was shut down in 1977.

There was a plan to possibly keep the golf ball as a landmark to recall the local area's role in the development of nuclear power, but the idea was later scrapped.

It was decided to stop repainting the entire structure every 10 years due to cost.

Dounreay is in the process of being decommissioned and demolished.