Sampling of beaches near the Dounreay nuclear power site 'should continue for the foreseable future', according to a new report.
The Scottish Environmental Protection Agency's (SEPA) report said additional particle monitoring designed to help detect radioactive particles should be carried out on the foreshore and at Sandside Beach near Dounreay.
SEPA also recommended that equipment used to find particles should be upgraded to improve detection rates.
The report advised that more samples should be taken, with monitoring being carried out in May and again six months later at Strathy Point and Murkle Beach.
Work to clean up tiny particles of irradiated nuclear fuel flushed into the sea from Dounreay, near Thurso, in the 1960s and 1970s began in the 1980s after fragments were discovered on the foreshore.
The report said that work carried out since the 1990s and 2012 and 2012 'appeared to have been successfully depleted the number of particles' resting on the seabed. SEPA added that additional monitoring would confirm if this was the case.
Dounreay is currently being decommissioned.
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