£470m nuclear plant does not work, admits BNFL

Britain's newest and most controversial nuclear plant does not work and has yet to produce a single finished product, senior sources at the company that runs it, BNFL, admitted yesterday.

Their admission casts a blight over a visit to Japan by the Energy minister, Stephen Timms, which starts today. Mr Timms is attempting to rescue the plant, built at Sellafield at a cost to the taxpayer of hundreds of millions of pounds.

The plant, designed to produce nuclear fuel made of mixed uranium and plutonium, is central to the viability of the controversial Cumbrian nuclear complex. Environ-mentalists have long attacked it as a waste of money and a terrorist target, since it will cause plutonium - which could be intercepted and used to make nuclear bombs - to be shipped around the world. Japan was meant to be the plant's main customer, hence Mr Timms' visit.

A top BNFL source said yesterday: "Despite everyone's best efforts, the bloody thing does not work." He said its design was so complex that it kept breaking down.

Tony Blair personally pushed through the go-ahead for the plant in 2001, against entrenched opposition from Michael Meacher, his then Environment minister. In an attempt to make it viable, the Government wrote off the entire £470m cost to the taxpayer of building the plant before giving it the green light. However, it still looks like being a financial catastrophe.

Martin Forwood, of Cumbrians Opposed to a Radioactive Environment, said: "The kindest thing would be to put the plant out of its misery and close it."

In a statement, BNFL admitted progress had been "disappointing" but said that delays were to be expected when commissioning a complex plant, and customers were being kept "informed".