Reay - Sandside Bay

Sandside Bay

One of the main environmental issues caused by the Dounreay Nuclear Power Development Establishment are radioactive nuclear fuel particles that have been released from the site into the sea, and are now on the seabed near the plant and in Sandside Bay. Some of these are being washed ashore, including a small number on the privately owned Sandside Bay beach which is open to the public and is part of the 10,000-acre (40 km2) Sandside Estate. The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs committed to clean up and open oversight of the work on 25 October 2006. The Dounreay Particles Advisory Group recommended that the particle monitoring frequency of the beach should be increased to fortnightly. . The 13th Laird of Sandside the Duke of Portland took the Government to Court to assert his ownership down to the low watermark of the estate granted by a barony of 1628 and won. The 19th Laird of Sandside since 1991, Geoffrey Minter, following the radioactive contamination beginning in 1997, took the Government owned UKAEA to court in 2003 and won, beyond appeal, a judicial review in Scotland's highest court proving radioactive damage to the estate's land and the UKAEA to be in breach of its statutory duty under the Nuclear Installations Act. UKAEA's contractors now regularly monitor the beach due to a permanent agreement with the landowner.

Sandside Bay is a Site of Special Scientific Interest