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The Royal Scottish Society of Arts
Showcasing Scotland's Science, Technology and Innovation



7th Meeting of the 194th Session (2014-2015)

Mark Rouse

Mark Rouse

James Gunn

James Gunn

Dounreay: Past and Present

Mark Rouse BEng(Hons)
Dounreay Managing Director
Cavendish Nuclear
and
James Gunn BSc(Hons) CChem MRSC
Senior Technical Officer
Dounreay Site Restoration Ltd

In the Augustine United Church
41 George IV Bridge
Edinburgh, EH1 1EL
On Monday 27th April 2015, at 7pm

The Dounreay nuclear establishment was the UK's centre for fast reactor R&D from 1955 to 1994 and created 2,500 highly skilled jobs.

Today, Dounreay is a site of construction, demolition and waste management, all of it designed to return the site to as near as practicable its original condition by circa 2025. Decommissioning Dounreay is recognised internationally as one of the most complex nuclear clean-up challenges in Europe. The site is being decommissioned on behalf of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority by Dounreay Site Restoration Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Cavendish Dounreay Partnership Ltd a consortium of Cavendish Nuclear, CH2MHILL and URS.

The lecture will summarise the facilities and past historic achievements that established Dounreay as a world leader in science and technology. It will also highlight the highly innovative technologies that have been developed to overcome the radioactive legacies and which maintain Dounreay's vision as the European benchmark for decommissioning a nuclear site.

Mark Rouse graduated from Coventry University with an honours degree in engineering and worked as a reactor test engineer with VSEL PLC until 1995. Mark was Nuclear Operations Director at Devonport from 1997 to 2010 and for two years prior to that Deputy PAG Chairman with GEC Marine.

Mark was seconded to Dounreay Site Restoration Ltd as Dounreay Managing Director in April 2013 from Babcock International Group, where he was director of nuclear safety and quality for its Marine and Technology Division, which includes the nuclear submarine sites at Devonport, Rosyth and Faslane.

James Gunn started working for the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority at Dounreay as a 16 year old scientific trainee in 1978. He was granted special leave to study Honours Chemistry at Edinburgh University and after graduating became an analytical chemist supporting the Fast Reactor nuclear fuel reprocessing plant. After a 12 year spell working for Rolls Royce & Associates at the neighbouring Vulcan Naval Reactor Test Establishment, he rejoined in 1998 as a decommissioning project manager working within the iconic Dounreay Sphere.

James then became responsible for site-wide strategic issues covering decommissioning technologies and knowledge management. He is presently a Senior Technical Officer within the Site Closure project and this includes a role as Heritage Officer, managing the flagship Dounreay Heritage project.

Location of meeting


Complimentary tea, coffee and biscuits are served from about 6:40pm onwards before the meetings.

Members of the Public are welcome to attend

Dr Jane Ridder-Patrick, Secretary
secretary@rssa.org.uk


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