A 10-strong team of official inspectors yesterday moved into Dounreay to begin the major safety audit which was announced two weeks ago by government watchdogs and endorsed by the Secretary of State Donald Dewar. But yesterday the plant's director, Dr Roy Nelson, gave assurances that Dounreay had a secure future, writes David Ross, Highland Correspondent.

The investigation is led by the depute chief inspector of the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate division of the Health and Safety Executive, Mr Jim Furness, accompanied by seven other NII inspectors, one from the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) and one other from the HSE's Field Operations Directorate.

The audit had originally been planned for the middle of last year but was postponed to take account of a review being undertaken by Dounreay's operators, the UK Atomic Energy Authority.

HSE's director general Jenny Bacon explained: ''HSE and Sepa are both determined to ensure that safety at Dounreay is properly managed and are bringing forward and extending this safety audit in view of recent events and the continuing level of concern that has been expressed about safety at Dounreay. We will produce a report of the audit and would hope to be able to publish it later this summer.''

The audit, which will last between three and four weeks, will investigate all elements of the management of the Dounreay site including: the effects of contractorisation; the management of reprocessing operations; the management of radioactive waste; the management of decommissioning; the arrangements for dealing with incidents; and the interface between Dounreay and UKAEA's corporate management.

Its announcement followed eight months when the plant was hardly ever out of the news. Events came to a head on May 7 when the electricity supply to the Fuel Cycle Area (FCA) was disrupted by a mechanical digger, the emergency supply failed causing the ventilation system also to fail.

Four days later the NII shut down all processing activities in the FCA and on May 15 the safety audit was announced.

The Parliamentary Trade and Industry Select Committee also announced an inquiry into the Government decision to accept highly enriched uranium from Georgia. A local hearing is to be held on June 15.

Anti-nuclear campaigners had predicted that the audit, following on a litany of headline-grabbing incidents, could spell the end of Dounreay's controversial nuclear processing and reprocessing work, but yesterday Dounreay's director was more confident.

Dr Nelson said the plant had nothing to hide and it certainly had a future: ''It will take us many, many years, almost a century to deal with all the decommissioning here on site, it will take us up to 25 years to deal with the shaft.

''We will be managing waste until these are finally disposed of so the future of Dounreay is secure. The way in which it is managed in future clearly is something the Government ultimately have the responsibility for and will be considering.

''As you might expect, morale in view of the intense media interest and, I have to say, misreporting on occasion, is not as good as I would like it to be but we have a job to do and we are going to do it.''