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DOUNREAY was last night accused by one of is main oppontents of wasting at least #300,000 of public money a year on an obsession with reprocessing other people's nuclear waste, by hiring 20 extra staff to work on a contract which might now never be completed.

At the centre of the latest controversy is the D2670 facility, which until October few people knew existed, and a #2m contract to reprocess Triga (Training, Research, Isotope, General Atomic) fuel from ICI Billingham in it.

Billingham is the only source of Triga fuel in the UK but there are around 5000 rods of spent Triga fuel lying in 19 countries across the world. Anti-nuclear campaigners have accused Dounreay of trying to open up a new line in foreign commercial reprocessing on the quiet.

Dounreay announced the ICI contract in October, describing it only as processing work, but by February it became clear that it was reprocessing and Dounreay had not sought official permission or mentioned it to the Scottish Environment Protection Agency. The management said that only the Nuclear Installation's Inspectorate had to be informed. Sepa, however, insisted that an official application would have to be lodged and a public consultation undertaken. The Scottish Office said it was Sepa's decision.

Earlier this week Dounreay announced recruitment of 20 operational staff to work in D2670. This had been done in anticipation of the Triga contract and before the NII's ban on any further reprocessing work announced last week following the recent total loss of electrical power to the whole Fuel Cycle Area. The safety audit, which will involve 10 inspectors from NII and Sepa and which critics believe will finally force an end to reprocessing, was announced shortly afterwards.

Dounreay's director Roy Nelson told The Herald last month that it would now be a year before D2670 could be made ready and approved by the regulators, including Sepa. The Billingham contract, however, was to have been completed in 1998 and 1999, which meant it was now in some difficulty. ''That certainly is something we are having to give a lot of thought to,'' Dr Nelson conceded.

Dounreay's leading critic, Mrs Lorraine Mann of Scotland Against Nuclear Dumping, said yesterday that 20 new salaries would mean at least #300,000 a year to the taxpayer. She believed it to be a breathtaking scandal and one that had to be investigated by the authorities.

''Dounreay clearly signed a contract and intended opening and operating this plant without the proper legal consents. Now we the taxpayers are picking up the bill for the speculative reconfiguration of a plant which is now highly unlikely Dounreay will ever be allowed to use.

''Possibly more damaging than anything is that management time has been invested in this silly distraction, when there have been huge safety problems on the site.

''The real effort should have been going into decommissioning. They cannot get over their obsession with reprocessing, something which has no economic justification whatsover and in itself presents a serious proliferation threat, as the US has long recognised.''

A Dounreay official said last night: ''The 20 people who were recruited for D2670 were brought in for a range of contracts, among which was the ICI Billingham contract.

''They had already begun being trained so that they would do preparatory work on PFR liability material in D2670, which would then have been going on to the residue recovery plant in D1206. That training is continuing and they are on care and maintenance work as well.''

The D1206 plant, however, has not worked since October 1996 when a leak in the sodium dissolver was discovered. A decision is awaited from the Department of Trade and Industry as to whether Dounreay can spend the considerable sums of money needed to do all the necessary repair work in the plant.