Weekly Update, 16th August 2010

• Separate meetings last week with representatives of Caithness Solutions and the Babcock Dounreay Partnership as we continue to discuss opportunities to deliver socio-economic benefit through the PBO competition process at Dounreay.
• I also participated in a two-day visit to Cumbria along with representatives from NDA, HIE, Highland Council, DSRL, Chamber of Commerce, Dounreay Stakeholders’ Group and North Highland Initiative. We met with representatives from the Sellafield PBO (Nuclear Management Partners), Sellafield Site License Company (Sellafield Ltd) and area NDA staff and heard some very useful views on how socio-economics in the Sellafield Competition had been approached. We also met with representatives from Copeland Borough Council, Cumbria County Council and Britain’s Energy Coast, to hear about how the partnership approach was working in Cumbria. The impending removal of Regional development Agencies in England is currently causing great concern in Cumbria, particularly to the Energy Coast initiative, but we brought back a number of potentially useful action points.