A £20m contract has been awarded as part of work to clean-up one of the most challenging features of the Dounreay nuclear power site.
Called the shaft, it plunges 65.4m (214.5ft) below ground and was used for disposing of radioactive waste.
The practice, which started in 1959, ended in 1977 following an explosion inside the structure.
Cavendish Nuclear has been awarded the contract to build a container handling facility.
Waste from the shaft, and another part of Dounreay called the silo, will be placed in 500 litre drums for storage.
Tackling the shaft has been dubbed the world’s deepest nuclear clean-up by Dounreay’s operators.
