A total of £1 million is being squirrelled away by Dounreay’s operators to help cover the cost of the recent spate of early leaving packages taken by employees.
It follows the move in 2017 by site licence company DSRL to downside its workforce to better align it with the programme of decommissioning the defunct fast reactor complex.
A total of 150 posts were axed, with the number of applicants for voluntary redundancy comfortably outstripping the places available.
The first wave went between December 2017 and March 2018, with the rest leaving the Caithness site earlier this year.
DSRL also announced the loss of 50 jobs provided by contractors with bases at the plant.
The firm’s latest accounts show £1m has been earmarked to cover the ‘restructuring’ exercise.
It is understood that many workers left with termination packages worth well over a year’s salary.
While the sum has been accounted for in DSRL’s annual accounts, it is to be reimbursed by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority.
The DSRL workforce at Dounreay grew from 1,000 in 2015 to nearly 1,200 in 2017 after a number of jobs previously carried out by contractors were moved ‘in-house’.
But the latest lay-offs has taken it down to or just below the 900 mark.