Anti-nuclear campaigners claim Dounreay 'victory'

Anti-nuclear campaigners have welcomed reports Dounreay is to cease being classed as a nuclear reprocessing plant.

Campaigners claimed victory after reports suggested the plant in Caithness would instead be used to store plutonium fuel.

The Scottish Executive refused to confirm the claims saying the final decision lay with the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) in London.

The DTI however dismissed the reports as speculative, insisting an announcement would be made shortly by the British Government.

But Lorraine Mann, the veteran Scotland Against Nuclear Dumping campaigner, claimed victory .

She said: "We do now think it's all over and that's a great relief to most people in the Highlands and Islands and the rest of Scotland."

The reports suggested the newly-appointed UK energy minister, Brian Wilson, was planning to block a contract to reprocess 25 tonnes of waste at the plant.

He was said to be backing calls for the potentially lethal plutonium fuel instead to be stored at the site for several decades.