‘By 1962, recreation was at the centre of ‘the centrifugal energy’ which had built-up in Thurso since the announcement of the Dounreay project. From the local perspective, the arrival of the atomics happened all of a sudden; the mass of people arrived all at once’. (Linda Ross, ‘Nuclear fission and social fusion’: the impact of… Read more »Read more

INTRODUCTION In 1954, Dounreay in Caithness, on the north coast of mainland Scotland, was chosen as the site for a new type of nuclear reactor. The aim of the project was to assess the effectiveness of fast breeder reactors in generating power for electricity. It was a huge undertaking that would require a sizeable labour… Read more »Read more