DML is one of several companies bidding for the work

The Ministry of Defence is currently asking people in Plymouth what they think of the idea in a scheme known as Project Isolus.

It has commissioned a public consultation exercise which is currently under way.

But some local people say not enough people know about it.

It should be properly publicised Barbara Merriott Have your say about Project Isolus

The UK currently has 27 nuclear-powered submarines.

Eleven are laid up, four of them at Devonport.

The government says they cannot remain in storage for ever and need to be dismantled.

The firm which runs Devonport Dockyard, DML, is one of several companies bidding for the work.

It is proposing to remove the reactor compartments at Devonport before transporting them elsewhere.

"It should be properly publicised," said one local resident, Barbara Merriott.

"Not in the ephemeral way of the small advertisement in a paper but something which is up in permanent places where lots of Plymouth people go on a regular basis."

The project is being carried out on behalf of the MoD by Lancaster University.

Researchers there say the project has been advertised in the local press as much here as in other parts of the country and there is not unlimited public money to spend.

DML said in a statement that if it won the bid, the work would be subject to "stringent controls by the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate and the Environment Agency".

It also said: "We have no space to store reactor compartments on site and we have no plans to create such a facility."