N-plant jobs axe
PART of the Sellafield nuclear plant in Cumbria is to close, putting around 800 jobs at risk.
The closure of the Mox site, Britain’s only plant for processing plutonium into fuel for reactors, was being blamed on the Japanese tsunami.
Officials said the plant was no longer viable because of uncertainty in the Japanese nuclear industry, the site’s chief customer, following the disaster which closed a number of reactors earlier this year.
The Prospect Union said the closure was “ill-conceived and short-sighted”.
The union said it will press for workers to be found alternative jobs on the Sellafield site, adding it would be “madness” to lose their specialist skills at a time of expansion in the nuclear industry.