Final shipment of radioactive waste returned to Belgium

A ship carrying waste to Belgium got into difficulty in bad weather last year

The final shipment of waste from the Dounreay nuclear plant in Caithness to Belgium has been completed.

The waste was produced during the reprocessing of material from Belgium at the Scottish site in the 1990s.

Under an agreement, the intermediate level waste has been shipped back to Belgium.

In October, a vessel carrying two containers each holding three 500-litre drums of the waste got into difficulty in bad weather in the Moray Firth.

The MV Parida suffered an engine fire leaving it adrift in high seas.

The Beatrice oil platform in the firth was evacuated as a precaution.

The cargo ship was eventually towed to Invergordon for repairs.

It later completed its journey to Antwerp in Belgium.

The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority said at the time that the ship and its cargo had been categorised at the lowest level of safety concern.

It has taken about four years to complete the work, transporting 150 tonnes of waste in 21 shipments to Belgium.