BNFL faces ministerial pressure to sell US business

["Charly Frey" <cfrey@ssi-group.net>]

BNFL faces ministerial pressure to sell US business





The Government is drawing up plans to sell the US arm of British Nuclear

Fuels, the state-owned nuclear services firm.



The disposal of Westinghouse would be a blow to BNFL, which sees it as a

central part of its strategy of building an integrated nuclear business.



Patricia Hewitt, the trade secretary, launched a review of BNFL earlier this

year after the Government abandoned plans for a flotation. A decision about

its future is expected within the next few weeks.



Hugh Collum, the chairman of BNFL, said the review was still ongoing and

that any decision would be made jointly by the company and ministers.

However, the Treasury is thought to be pushing hard for a sale of

Westinghouse, which has a turnover of about $1bn.



BNFL's situation in the US is in stark contrast to that of Aveva, its arch

rival. Aveva, heavily backed by its owner, the French government, is

promoting its reactors for any new nuclear build in the US. The French group

has a direct competitor to Westinghouse's AP1000 reactor.



BNFL, which made a pre-tax loss of £1bn in the year to March 31, had been

hoping the UK would consider the AP1000 for new nuclear power stations.

However, the White Paper on energy earlier this year all but ruled out

nuclear as a serious contributor to Britain's future electricity needs.



Collum has warned that by 2020 up to 75 per cent of UK energy will be

imported in the absence of new nuclear build.



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