RAF Dounreay was built for RAF
Coastal Command
RAF Coastal Command was a formation within the Royal Air Force (RAF). It was founded in 1936, when the RAF was restructured into Fighter, Bomber and Coastal Commands and played an important role during the Second World War. Maritime Aviation ...
in 1944, but not used by them.
It was transferred to the Royal Navy as HMS Tern II, but not commissioned and on care and maintenance until 1954.
In 1955 the airfield was taken over by the
United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority
The United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority is a UK government research organisation responsible for the development of fusion energy. It is an executive non-departmental public body of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy ...
(UKAEA) for developing a
fast breeder reactor
A breeder reactor is a nuclear reactor that generates more fissile material than it consumes. Breeder reactors achieve this because their neutron economy is high enough to create more fissile fuel than they use, by irradiation of a fertile mat ...
. One runway was kept operational until the 1990s for transport to/from the site.
See also
*
Dounreay
Dounreay (; gd, Dùnrath) is a small settlement and the site of two large nuclear establishments on the north coast of Caithness in the Highland area of Scotland. It is on the A836 road west of Thurso.
The nuclear establishments were cre ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dounreay
Caithness
Defunct airports in Scotland
Airports established in 1944