Nucleus, the Nuclear and Caithness Archives

The archives are housed on former Royal Air Force land adjacent to Wick Airport in Caithness, North-East Scotland.[2] The facility was constructed by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) at the cost of £21 million.[2][3] The site was chosen from a shortlist of four areas selected by the NDA as being affected by the decommissioning of nuclear power stations. More than 2,000 people in the local area are working to decommission the former nuclear facilities at Dounreay in a project set to complete in 2030. The establishment of the archives will create 25 permanent jobs in the area, the majority of which can be filled by members of the local community.[4]

The facility was constructed under a design and build contract by Morrison Construction.[4][5] The design was carried out by Reiach and Hall Architects who won the Architects' Journal 2017 Editor's Choice Award for their work. It consists of a two-storey concrete archive building and a separate single-storey administration and publicly-accessible building. The buildings are clad in silver-anodised aluminium and the grounds contain "lochan" (small lochs) water features.[5] The facility opened in February 2017.[2]

Nucleus holds the national archive of the UK civil nuclear industry and the county archive for Caithness.[2][1] The site is managed by High Life Highland, an arm of the Highland Council.[2] The archives are made available for public access.[1] The site will also become a training centre for archivists, with links to the University of the Highlands and Islands and the North Highland College.[4] The archives are in the process of being digitised by Restore Digital to allow online access.[4]