Nucleus, the Nuclear and Caithness Archives facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Nucleus, the Nuclear and Caithness Archives |
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Scottish Gaelic: Niùclas: An Tasglann Niùclasach agus Gallach
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| General information | |
| Town or city | Wick |
| Country | Scotland |
| Coordinates | 58°27′04″N 3°05′02″W / 58.451°N 3.084°W |
| Current tenants | UK Civil Nuclear Industry Records, County of Caithness Archives |
| Opened | February 2017 |
| Cost | £21 million |
| Client | Nuclear Decommissioning Authority |
| Design and construction | |
| Main contractor | Morrison Construction |
Nucleus, the Nuclear and Caithness Archives (which is Niùclas: An Tasglann Niùclasach agus Gallach in Scottish Gaelic) is a special building in Scotland. It holds important historical records for two main things:
- The entire British civil nuclear industry.
- The local area called the County of Caithness.
This huge archive was built by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) and first opened its doors in 2017. They are still working to gather all the NDA's old documents and items from 16 different places into this one central spot. The Caithness county archives, which date back to 1589, are also kept safe here.
Contents
The Nucleus Building
This amazing archive building is located on land that used to belong to the Royal Air Force. It's right next to Wick Airport in Caithness, which is in North-East Scotland. The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) spent about £21 million to build this facility.
Why This Location?
The NDA chose this spot from a list of four possible areas. These areas were picked because they were affected by the closing down of nuclear power stations. For example, over 2,000 people in the local area are working to safely take apart the old nuclear facilities at Dounreay. This big project is expected to finish around 2030.
Building Nucleus has created 25 permanent jobs in the area. Most of these jobs can be filled by people who live nearby, which is great for the local community.
Building Design and Features
The building was constructed by Morrison Construction. The design was created by Reiach and Hall Architects. Their work was so good that they won an award in 2017!
The Nucleus facility has two main parts:
- A two-storey concrete building where the archives are stored.
- A separate, single-storey building for offices and a public area.
The buildings are covered in shiny silver-coloured aluminium. Outside, the grounds have "lochan" (which means small lochs or ponds) water features, making the area look very nice. The facility officially opened in February 2017.
What's Inside the Archives?
Nucleus is home to the national archive of the UK civil nuclear industry. It also holds the county archive for Caithness. The site is managed by High Life Highland, which is part of the Highland Council.
The archives are open for the public to visit and use. Nucleus will also become a training centre for people who want to become archivists. It has connections with the University of the Highlands and Islands and the North Highland College. Many of the records are being turned into digital files by Restore Digital. This means people will soon be able to look at them online!
The UK Nuclear Archive
Before Nucleus was built, the UK nuclear industry's historical records were scattered across at least 16 different places. Many were in buildings connected to old or active nuclear power stations. The NDA started looking for one central place to keep all these records in 2005.
Since Nucleus opened, records have slowly started to move there from other sites. The first big transfer was 330,000 photos and 200 tonnes of documents from the nearby Dounreay power station. By 2022, the entire archive should be moved. This includes 80,000 boxes of files from Sellafield and a similar number from Magnox Ltd.
The digital part of the archive has 30 million records! These records go all the way back to the late 1940s. The archive also received a collection of nuclear-related journals from the 1950s from the North Highland College library.
The Caithness Archive
The Caithness county archive used to be kept at the Caithness Archive Centre in Wick Library. However, it simply ran out of space there. This archive includes many different types of historical documents:
- Charters (official documents)
- Minutes (records of meetings)
- Correspondence (letters)
- Maps
- Photographs
The oldest records in the Caithness archive date back to 1589!
