Caithness in Sutherland is being proposed as the base for research into fusion energy.

The scheme has the potential to create a complex employing hundreds of people.

Public agencies are making efforts to attract the project to Caithness to offset the Dounreay rundown.

They believe that it will provide jobs for the scientists and engineers who are due to be made redundant as the power station is closed.

The new fusion plant is part of a £1 billion international venture to harness cheap supplies of eco-friendly energy.

The facility would be utilised to research and test material to be used in commercial fusion power plants in the future.

Caithness and North Sutherland Regeneration Partnership believes the area is suited to receive the facility.

Partnership manager Eann Sinclair said the area has a proven track record in developing leading-edge technology and the skilled workers at Dounreay could adapt to fusion research.

The International Fusion Materials Inspection Facility would need about 100 megawatts of energy which could be supplied by the new wave power development in the Pentland Firth.

The fusion project was flagged up to the partnership by Dounreay Site Restoration Ltd, the operators of the plant.

Spokesman Colin Punler told the John O'Groat Journal: "One of our roles is to help the area adjust to the closure of Dounreay and use its contacts to identify any opportunities for inward investment.

"Here is a project whose demands for a workforce are broadly on the same timescale as the rundown of Dounreay.

"We'll be having scientists and engineers leaving Dounreay at the time the fusion project is due to be getting under way."

MP John Thurso said: "We're talking about a completely new, highly-experimental technology which requires exactly the sorts of engineering and technical skills that Dounreay has.

"For me, it's a no-brainer that we should be looking to move into this. If there was an opportunity for the area to site this new research plant, I'd be all for it."