You report on the transport of highly enriched uranium from Dounreay to the US (Calls to ban 'unsafe' nuclear flights from Highland airport, News, December 18). Highlands Against Nuclear Transport (HANT) believes moving highly dangerous nuclear materials unnecessarily increases the risk of accident, terrorist attacks and radiation leaks.

HANT calls on the Scottish Government to demand that the UK Government and its decommissioning agency NDA halt these flights immediately to prevent further risk to the local population of Caithness and other areas overflown by these transports – an accident could have a devastating effect on the environment, local populations and the economy.

The NDA has confirmed that high-level waste could be stored at Dounreay under full security and monitoring and given that a suitable site for a deep geological depository may never be found in the UK, the safest way to store these materials is on the sites where it is produced.

This would retain and create employment at Dounreay for the long-term future as decommissioning of the site will result in huge job losses in Caithness in the next few years

Tor Justad

Chairperson, Highlands Against Nuclear Transport