Oct 01 - Daily Post; Liverpool

BRITISH Nuclear Fuels last night insisted it was still reviewing its options amid reports that it had decided to sell its nuclear sites and clean-up division to the private sector.

Sources yesterday claimed the board of state-owned BNFL, which has its headquarters in Warrington, had decided to sell its clean- up subsidiary. It was also claimed other assets such as the nuclear plants at Sellafield, Sizewell and Dungeness would also be put up for sale.

A BNFL spokesman said: "We have been developing a number of proposals we need to discuss with stakeholders, including the trade unions, our major customer - the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority - and the shareholder executive. This work is ongoing."

Unions warned that the "privatisation" of Britain's nuclear power sites would weaken the country's influence over the future of the industry.

The claims came just two days after Prime Minister Tony Blair told the Labour Party Conference he wanted a debate about Britain's future energy needs, including nuclear.

A spokesman for the biggest union involved, Prospect, said: "We fear that decisions about new nuclear power stations being built would no longer be under the control of the Government if the sale goes overseas.

"We believe the Government must maintain a strong influence rather than leaving the industry to market forces."

The unions regard any selling off of parts of nuclear sites as privatisation but industry sources said that was not the case. They pointed out that the power stations, reactors and other sites would continue to be owned by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority.

One source said it would be the "ownership" of the employees which would change.

Any decision to sell off parts of the sites would have to be ratified by a body which was appointed by the Department of Trade and Industry but this was expected to be a rubber-stamping exercise.

Other sites were currently being decommissioned.

Around 8,000 employees would be affected by the decision