Optimising waste management at Dounreay.

♦ Following the UK governmental decision to cease fast reactor operations and research in 1994, the focus of Dounreay has moved from fast reactor research and development to decommissioning and waste management. ♦ The waste at Dounreay is highly diverse due to the range of the historical operations carried out on the site. ♦ Using the Waste Informed Decommissioning approach has many benefits - projects will be responsible for generating waste that is well understood via early characterisation and have it packaged in a form that is suitable for disposal that can be demonstrably optimised. Improvements to waste segregation and decontamination of waste by the project teams prior to packing will ensure that the most efficient destination for each item of waste is reached. ♦ The challenge now is to re-focus the culture again at Dounreay to allow waste to be thought of as the fruits of the labour rather than the leftovers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]