Dounreay is to open a public information centre to improve its communication about the clean-up and closure of the site.

The plant's operators have been prosecuted twice this year for pollution offences.

The new centre will give members of the public access to information about the £150 million-a-year decommissioning project and let them talk directly to staff from the site.

Dounreay director Simon Middlemas said: "Members of the public cannot come onto the site itself because of the increasing amount of construction and demolition work taking place at Dounreay and the need to keep leftover nuclear materials secure.

"That means we need to reach out from the site to make it easier for members of the public and visitors to find out how their money is being spent and to communicate with us. The new public information centre, together with a new website for the site to be launched next April, is intended to make the site more open to the public without actually needing to step foot on it."

Located in former Government offices at 7 Traill Street in the centre of Thurso, it will be open from 9am until 5pm, Monday to Friday. The centre is due to open on Monday, November 26. he new centre will be staffed by communications personnel relocated from the site.

In February The UK Atomic Energy Authority was fined £140,000 for releasing radioactive particles into the sea off Dounreay and illegally dumping radioactive waste over a 20-year period.

The authority's negligence had been documented by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency before reporting to the procurator fiscal in Wick.

In July there was a further fine of £15,000 after an employee had breathed in plutonium Meanwhile earlier this year, damage caused by storms a year ago led to the premature closure of a seasonal visitor centre adjacent to the site. It has now been demolished.