DOUNREAY BOSS WAS JAILED FOR ARSON; ` Prison altered my life. It was good for me'.

A MAN who has been sacked from a senior management post at the Dounreay nuclear power station has admitted that he was once convicted of fire-raising.

Sean McGlennon, who worked as a public relations consultant at the plant until last week, served a year in jail for the offences.

Officially, the 41-year-old was dismissed from Dounreay because of his poor work performance

But the Sunday Mail can reveal that senior management at the troubled nuclear plant were aware of McGlennon's criminal past after he admitted he was a convicted arsonist.

He was found guilty at Beverley Crown Court , East Yorkshire, in February 1982 of fire-raising charges and was sent to prison for three years.

McGlennon appealed against the sentence at the Court of Appeal in London and the sentence was cut to one year.

At the time he was living in Hull and was known as Sean England.

He moved to Edinburgh and last year was given a job as a public relations officer at Dounreay in Caithness with responsibility for promoting the plant and polishing up it's tarnished image.

However, a few months into the job, McGlennon was mysteriously suspended, then sacked last week.

He claimed the reason for his dismissal was because he voted for the SNP, a leading critic of the Caithness nuclear plant.

It has not been made clear why the Atomic Energy Authority took the unusual step of suspension if the problem was simply his failure to perform as media manager.

Bosses at Dounreay have been severely criticised in the last two years over the plant's safety record after a series of incidents including a fire.

McGlennon insists that he was open and truthful with Dounreay about his criminal past. He said: "The Atomic Energy Authority knew all about that.

"I had to fill in a security form and they knew everything about everything.

"They were quite happy with that, and it was not a problem at all.

"The incident is not relevant. This is not news. They weren't concerned... why are you?

"You pay your dues, and that is the end of it.

However, McGlennon admits that he found prison a distressing experience.

He added: "It was a life- changing experience. It either changes your for good or for bad and, luckily for me, it changed me for good.

The Hull man married 15 months ago and unusually took his wife Laura's name of McGlennon.

However, he denied that the decision to change his name was an attempt at a cover-up.

McGlennon added: "The decision to take her name was a mark of dedication to my wife. I am not covering up my past as obviously that hasn't worked."

McGlennon, who also used to work as a professional clown, first hit the headlines when he started work at Dounreay last September.

A former volunteer with the anti-nuclear body Friends of the Earth, he was accused of betraying the anti-nuclear cause by going over to the other side.

However, the environmentalist said he had changed his mind and thought it better to work for change inside the system .

Dounreay has been strongly criticised over its safety record in the last two years.

Last December, it was revealed that a container given to local children in Thurso, Caithness, for a Santa's grotto had been used to store nuclear waste.

Last May, an inquiry was launched after fire broke out in the nuclear reprocessing unit.

The blaze started in a canister of uranium waste and led to staff in one section being evacuated.

Earlier, bosses had come under fire over claims they hushed up plutonium leaks.

During an inspection it was found that up to one litre of contaminated liquid a month had been trickling from a pipe on a mothballed reactor.

In another incident, the safety back-up system failed when a workman operating a mechanical digger accidentally cut through power cables. The incident was one reason why the Government ordered the temporary closure of the plant.

First Minister Donald Dewar ordered management at Dounreay to get a grip on safety after a Health and Safety Executive report 18 months ago highlighted 143 recommendations for improvements.

Dounreay spokesman Derek Milnes confirmed that McGlennon has been sacked from his post.

[e-mail]