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A nuclear power station in the Highlands had to be evacuated after radioactive contamination was discovered, it has been revealed.

Workers at the Dounreay plant, west of Thurso, had to be moved out after what site bosses are describing as a "human error" issue.

The incident took place on June 7, but details were only released publicly on Wednesday at a meeting of the Dounreay Stakeholder Group, as the Press and Journal reports.

Dounreay nuclear station was earmarked for early decommissioning after a damning report found a number of issues with the plant.

The site is due to be demolished by 2036 at a cost of £2.9bn to taxpayers.

(Image: Crawford Brown)

Managing director Martin Moore said: “The contamination was very local but it wasn’t in a place it should have been, normally.

“The levels were insignificant but they should not have been there so we cleared the area and then had a controlled re-entry.”

He added that no harm has come as a result of the contamination.

The newspaper states that a spokesman for the DSRL ( Dounreay Site Restoration Limited) defended the decision to not inform the public immediately about the contamination.

He said: "Earlier this month, an employee at Dounreay detected low levels of radioactive contamination during routine personal monitoring while exiting a controlled area.

“As a precaution, work in the area stopped immediately and an investigation was launched. The individual was wearing the correct protective clothing for the area. They have since returned to work and operations have returned to normal.

“There was no risk to members of the public, no increased risk to the workforce and no release to the environment.”

(Image: Daily Record)

An investigation is now under way to determine exactly what happened.

Mr Moore added: “It came down to a lack of due diligence in monitoring around one of the barriers.

"It was human error. It shouldn’t have happened and we’re very disappointed that it did."

A spokesman for the Scottish Environment Protection Authority said: “This investigation is ongoing and we have served notice on DSRL to provide some additional information."