The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority is expected to confirm a contractor for the job shortly with the aim of starting work on the archive building in the summer.
It will provide long-term storage for a huge volume of records and other archive material from civil nuclear sites dating back to the 1940’s.
The complex will be built close to Wick Airport, near the Dounreay experimental power complex, and will eventually house an estimated 30m digital, paper and photographic records from civil nuclear sites.
There are a staggering 250t of documents charting the development of Britain’s first fast-breeder nuclear reactor at Dounreay alone.
Edinburgh architecture practice Reiach and Hall has worked up designs for the national nuclear archive to RIBA plan of works Stage 3.