BNFL, the state-owned nuclear group, will be wound up by the end of next year, after selling both its Westinghouse business and its clean-up activities.

The group said yesterday that its businesses were well placed for life in the private sector as it reported annual pre-tax profits of £179 million, £20 million higher than last year.

Mike Parker, chief executive of BNFL, said: “By the end of 2007, we will have sold Westinghouse, sold BNG, sold BNG America and will know what will happen to our other businesses. There will be little need for the BNFL corporate centre from this time.”

Westinghouse, whose sale to Toshiba for $5.4 billion (£2.9 billion) is to close this autumn, has won significant contracts in the US, Europe and Korea, which helped its profits to rise to £94 million. In contrast, BNG, the decommissioning business that has responsibility for Sellafield and operates 14 nuclear sites in the UK, saw its profits decline from £108 million in 2005 to £72 million in 2006. BNG is now working as a contractor under the new Nuclear Decommissioning Authority and has thereby earned less than it had when it received payment internally through BNFL.

BNG is in the process of being sold and a shortlist of half-a-dozen pre-qualified bidders is expected to be drawn up this autumn. The sales process will be overseen jointly by the NDA and BNFL and is expected to close during 2007.

There has been speculation that the nuclear clean-up business could be sold for as much as a £1 billion, but BNFL has been anxious to guide estimates to a lower figure, saying that the sales process will not be as straightforward a commercial auction as the one that was carried out for Westinghouse.

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