This article combines the traditionally rural focus of Highland history with the growing field of nuclear culture to examine the impact which Dounreay Experimental Research Establishment had on Caithness between 1953 and 1966. From the outset of the project the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority knew that it would have to import specialist technical staff into an area economically driven by agriculture and fishing. This resulted in a distinct form of employment-based migration to the Highlands, reversing population decline in Caithness during the period of study. This article identifies the reasons for, and local reaction to, the UKAEA's choice of Caithness as the location for its fast breeder reactor establishment. It assesses the significant in-migration to the area during the initial phase of the Dounreay plant's development, before exploring how perceptions of distance and Caithnessian ‘difference’ affected the recruitment of staff in what the UKAEA considered an ‘unconventional’ location. It puts people and place at the centre of the nuclear project, revealing Dounreay's role in creating a mid-twentieth century Highland counter-narrative of in-migration and modernity far removed from traditional discourses of depopulation.

中文翻译：

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Dounreay：创建核北方

本文将高地历史的传统农村焦点与不断发展的核文化领域结合起来，研究了 1953 年至 1966 年间 Dounreay 实验研究机构对 Caithness 的影响。从项目一开始，英国原子能局就知道它会必须将专业技术人员引进到以农业和渔业为经济驱动的地区。这导致了一种独特的基于就业的移民到高地，扭转了研究期间凯斯内斯的人口下降趋势。本文确定了 UKAEA 选择凯斯内斯作为其快中子增殖反应堆建立地点的原因和当地反应。它评估了在 Dounreay 工厂开发初期向该地区迁移的大量人口，在探讨距离和凯斯内斯“差异”的看法如何影响 UKAEA 认为“非常规”地点的员工招聘之前。它将人和地方置于核项目的中心，揭示了 Dounreay 在创造远离传统人口减少话语的移民和现代性的 20 世纪中叶高地反叙事中的作用。