As part of a Dounreay stakeholder delegation, the Far North Councillor Mackie visited the vital site and quizzed senior figures on decommissioning plans.
Cllr Mackie said " I am very proud to belong to a community where we have such an affinity to the Dounreay site and all the opportunities that it has provided generations of Caithnessian's over the last five decades." "The site continues to be strategically important for developing our young workforce and it still employs around 2,000 people in good quality and highly skilled roles. We all know that the site will not be operating at this level forever but we need to be pragmatic about what opportunities are available for the workforce as the decommissioning process continues." "With a community with such as strong relationship with the nuclear industry and a track record of acting at the cutting edge of it (in energy generation and decommissioning), I still believe that there is a nuclear future in the Far North. The Scottish Government remain committed to not allowing new nuclear sites using 'existing technology' but this attitude must change." "A true energy mix benefits the consumer as well as the environment and I am not convinced that we will ever meet our targets relying on renewable power alone."